Awareness on privacy Don’t count Mayawati out Ominous sign
The editorial, “The new fundamental” (August 25), encapsulates the historic and landmark judgement of the Right to Privacy correctly. I am happy Business Standard has taken a view of the privacy issue and directed public opinion on it.
There are several contentious issues. One, whether Aadhaar adoption will lead to techno-surveillance, as has been alleged. There has been no word about Central Monitoring Services, developed by the Centre for Development of Telematics, and Netra projects of the Defence Research and Development Organisation. This is believed to have become prominent under the present administration. Likewise, Project Insight by the income tax department that now accounts for social media updates. After this judgment, a balanced and nuanced approach would be required so as not to compromise on national security goals.
Silicon Valley majors with a considerable presence in India are a more vital, persistent threat; internal surveillance is still subject to Indian laws and judicial oversight, but that the mass of generated data is being ferreted out of India without adequate control requires the country to set up a data shield and clamp down on egress.
China’s path is worth emulating in this regard. Despite howls of protest, Apple and Microsoft have bent over backwards to get a slice of the Chinese market while Google and Facebook have been denied entry for the benefit of home-grown companies.
India could reap rich dividends with multiple trickle- down benefits for Digital India, pursuing a safe harbour for data retention within the country’s geographical confines. If data is the new oil, we deserve full benefit of this “oil boom”.
This judgment brings up a lot of interesting possibilities and has helped bring privacy to the forefront. Hopefully, people will become more aware of keeping things private.
Abhishek Puri Mohali With reference to the report, “BSP will not participate in Lalu Prasad’s anti-BJP rally in Patna: Mayawati” (August 24), it is evident from the Bahujan Samaj Party president’s stand that there is a great deal of distrust among the main political players, who are looking to become constituents of a secular alliance to combat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2019 general elections.
Although Mayawati ( pictured) is lying low, she is not out. She remains an important leader in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state. Her stand reveals that the secular alliance, if it ever comes into being, would have a lot of squabbles when dealing with the real business of seat sharing.
Samiul Hassan Quadri Bikaner The abdication of responsibility by the Haryana government in Panchkula where supporters of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim went on a rampage torching vehicles and causing unrest after he was convicted of rape was even more complete than when the government failed to quell the Jat agitation earlier.
A prescient high court had already warned the lax government to meet eventualities with firmness. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in coalition with the People’s Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir, was at least making noises over the continued state of unrest there.
In running Haryana, the BJP has not only been ineffective in upholding law and order but worse, tongue-tied. Vote bank politics is not new to this nation but for a government to be rendered helpless to this extent because of it, is an ominous sign.
Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are now sought to be acquired by the BJP, which is to be expected as it has to look for new political pastures. But with such a skewed approach to political governance, as in Haryana, south India could well be in far more trouble than the limited harm it bears due to endemic regional politics.
R Narayanan Ghaziabad