Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) has changed the way we looked at
traditional Human Rights and Civil Liberties. Traditionally Human
Rights were confined to physical and mental aspects only. However,
with the advent of ICT, Human Rights and Civil Liberties have assumed
a totally different meaning. Unfortunately, the legislations around
the world are still lagging far behind that required to protect Human
Rights in Cyberspace.
India
has been deliberately violating Privacy Rights of its Netizens through various e-surveillance projects and its phone tapping
activities. We have no dedicated Privacy
Laws
and Data
Protection Laws
(PDF) in India as on date. Successive Indian Governments have clearly
signaled through their "conducts" that they are not at all
interested in protecting Privacy Rights in India. The Narendra Modi
Government even mentioned in the Supreme Court of India that there is
no Privacy Right in India under the Indian Constitution.
This
article
is discussing the controversial issues of censorship
and e-surveillance
in India under the projects like Aadhaar, Digital India, national
intelligence grid (Natgrid), etc. Till now it is clear that
surveillance
and censorship under Digital India and Aadhaar
is widely practiced in India.
Adoption
of digital India project by Indian government has always been
portrayed as a social and welfare oriented initiative. Digital India
is treading exactly on similar lines as Aadhaar has worked so far. As
Aadhaar has increasingly been tied up by Indian government with
digital India, there is no escape from the conclusion that the
combination of Aadhaar and digital India is a digital
panopticon.
Further, it is also
obvious that surveillance and censorship under digital India and
Aadhaar regimes are omnipresent. The blog title Internet,
Mobile And Social Media Censorship In India By Twitter, Facebook,
Google, Etc has been cataloging the censorship and
surveillance activities of Indian government and technology companies
like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, etc for long. A dedicated
page titled censorship
and surveillance under digital India has also been opened
to report about surveillance and censorship activities of Indian
government. Censorship
and surveillance under Aadhaar project has also been
covered by us.
Anyone who is active on
social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, etc is well aware that
critical tweets and sharing are oftenly censored in India. Twitter is
on the forefront of this exercise where Aadhaar
and digital
India related critical tweets are censored in real time.
As far as e-surveillance
is concerned, Indian government is infamous for its blatant
e-surveillance with no regard to the constitutional norms. Aadhaar is
the final nail in the coffin of civil liberties that are openly
violated by Indian government. Civil
liberties protection in cyberspace is absent in India.
There is no e-surveillance
policy of India (pdf) that can govern the illegal and
unconstitutional e-surveillance and phone tapping activities of
Indian government and its agencies.
Worst part of this
situation is that parliamentary
oversight of intelligence agencies of India is still
missing till date. To give overreaching and illegal e-surveillance
and phone tapping powers in the hands of such intelligence agencies
is a death knell of civil liberties. India “must
reconcile” the civil liberties and national security
requirements but the same is presently missing. Clearly India has
become a police state with unaccountable Orwellian powers.
