Amit Shah hits back at Rahul Gandhi, accuses him of fear-mongering
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Friday accused Congress president Rahul Gandhi of fear-mongering, in response to his reaction to the recent order by the Union government.
The Centre has passed an order to authorise ten central agencies to intercept, monitor, and decrypt any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer.
While some yelled “ghar, ghar Modi”, or “stalker sarkar” at the Parliament session, Rahul tweeted that converting the nation into a police state would not solve any problem.
To this end, Shah targetted guns at the UPA and its regime in the past. He tweeted, “Yet again Rahul does fear-mongering and plays politics with national security. UPA put no barriers on unlawful surveillance. When Modi govt puts safeguards for citizens, Rahul cries conspiracy.”
Shah also appropriated lines from an old Hindi song and replaced ‘dard’ [pain] with ‘darr’ [fear].
The BJP president attached to the tweet a PIB release that lays down the specifications the government can follow in the process of intercepting information.
The release, dated December 20, 2018, says “the competent authority may authorise an agency of the Government to intercept, monitor or decrypt information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource for the purpose specified in sub-section (1) of Section 69 of the Act.”
Other pointers in the release mention that a notification was issued to notify the ISPs, TSPs, Intermediaries etc. to codify the existing orders.
Each case of interception, monitoring, decryption is to be approved by the competent authority i.e. Union Home secretary, the release further says.
The release also says that adequate safeguards are provided in the IT Act 2000, adding the Ministry of Home Affairs has not delegated its powers to any law enforcement or security agency.
The Opposition parties termed the move as unconstitutional and said they will collectively oppose the Union Home Ministry’s order that was issued on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Opposition, led by Congress and followed by the CPI(M), the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Trinamool Congress and the AIMIM said they would collectively oppose the order.
The BJP government, the Opposition leaders said, was converting the country into a surveillance state.
“From Modi Sarkar to stalker sarkar, clearly the string of losses has left the BJP government desperate for information,” the Congress said on its official Twitter handle.
For the unversed, according to the order, the subscriber or service provider or any person in charge of the computer resource will be bound to extend all facilities and technical assistance to the agencies. Failing to do so will invite seven-year imprisonment and fine.
The agencies are the Intelligence Bureau, Narcotics Control Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Central Bureau of Investigation, National Investigation Agency, Cabinet Secretariat (R&AW), Directorate of Signal Intelligence (For service areas of Jammu & Kashmir, North-East and Assam only) and Commissioner of Police, Delhi.
