The government has said it has authorised 10 central agencies to intercept, monitor and decrypt all the data contained in "any" computer system and asserted that this was being done to prevent "any unauthorised use of these powers".
Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi an "insecure dictator" over the Centre's move to authorise 10 agencies to intercept information on any computer system, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said converting India into a police state won't solve the Prime Minister's problems.ictator".
"Converting India into a police state isn’t going to solve your problems, Modi Ji. It’s only going to prove to over 1 billion Indians, what an insecure dictator you really are," Gandhi said on Twitter.
The government has said it has authorised 10 central agencies to intercept, monitor and decrypt all the data contained in "any" computer system and asserted that this was being done to prevent "any unauthorised use of these powers".
The new order, issued late Thursday night, "does not confer any new powers" to any security or law enforcement agency, the Union Home ministry said in a statement.
Opposition parties led by the Congress joined hands on Friday to oppose the government's move, describing it as unconstitutional, undemocratic and an assault on fundamental rights.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday told the Rajya Sabha that Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has only repeated the same order, pertaining to surveillance, which was there since 2009. The minister was also joined by his cabinet colleague and Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who also strongly defended of the order, saying it was a mere repetition of rules passed during the UPA regime in 2009.
But the Congress has been unrelenting on the charge with Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill accusing both the ministers of "lying".
"This order is nothing but a way to replace democracy in the country with Modicracy. Both Jaitley are Prasad are lying and misleading the nation because unlike this order, the 2009 rules neither specify 10 investigating and intelligence agencies nor give them any blanket powers to snoop," Shergill told the media in Delhi.
"When the 2009 rules are existing, then what is the need of passing a new order? The need is not in public interest. The Modi government has grown paranoid after losing the recent Assembly elections and wants to intimidate citizens, snoop and steal data and try to change the narrative that is emerging against them," he said.
(with IANS and PTI inputs)