We all are systematically, continuously and
vigorously brainwashed with daily doses of social media and other
forms of publicity regarding the digital India project of Indian
government. However, when it comes to critical
analysis of the digital India project, they are severely
censored in India. Even the facets of digital India like
smart cities are suffering from violation of civil
liberties issues and facing dangers of inadequate cyber
security.
In this guest
post, Praveen
Dalal has wonderfully analysed the shortcomings of digital
India project that must be removed by Indian government. He believes
that digital India is biggest
panopticon of human race the moment it is clubbed with
e-surveillance
tool named Aadhaar.
According to Dalal, Digital India is a very
ambitious and significant project by Indian Government. However, it
is also suffering from some “Shortcomings”
that have still not been tackled properly. As a result the Digital
India project is heading towards rough
waters and may face many legal and technological
challenges in the near future.
I would not discuss all these shortcomings in this
article but am focusing on a particular problem that has taken the
shape of a “Civil Liberties Violations Menace”. Yes I am talking
about the E-Surveillance and Eavesdropping aspects of Indian
Government projects like Central
Monitoring System (CMS), National
Intelligence Grid (Natgrid), Internet Spy System Network
and Traffic Analysis System (NETRA),
National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC),
etc. To make the matter worst, Indian Government has been postponing
Intelligence
Agencies Reforms for many decades.
However, nothing can beat the draconian
e-surveillance
project named Aadhaar that has been designed to take a
complete control over the digital lives of Indians. Surprisingly both
the Indian Parliament and Supreme Court of India are watching
helplessly while the Executive branch has usurped the “Legislative
Powers” and literally mocked all sorts of Judicial
Review.
Take the example of the interim
order (PDF) issues by Supreme Court of India mandating
that Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory for availing various public
services. Although Central Government has informed the Supreme Court
that Aadhaar
is not mandatory for availing public services yet it has
been made compulsory for almost all the digital
and non digital services in India. As a result a wonderful project
like Digital India would be heading for rough
waters if our Judiciary is even “Remotely Sensitive”
to Civil Liberties Violation issues.
This is also not the end of the story. When
everything is clubbed with Aadhaar, it gives a complete control to
our E-Surveillance loving Government over our digital and non digital
lives. There is nothing left to claim Informational
Privacy from our own Government. Privacy is our Human
Right and not a Government charity and it should not be
taken away with direct or indirect methods.
What is most anguishing is the “Deafening Silence” of the Parliament of India and Indian Supreme Court to resolve these issues. Why Parliament has abdicated its “Legislative Powers” in favour of the Executive and why Supreme Court has not taken the Executive stringently cannot be explained with any rationale explanation. However, in the absence of exercise of their “Constitutional Duties” we can safely conclude the “Separation of Powers” under the Indian Constitution has “ceased to exist” in the present and turbulent E-Surveillance era of India.
