Of late, the opposition has been trying to corner the Modi government on every possible issue. At times, it has been crying foul even when there is no suspicion of anything being reprehensible in governmental action. The sympathetic media has also played an active role in such propaganda and have attempted to make a mountain of what is not even a molehill on a regular basis. Recently, the manufactured furor on the issue of MHA notification regarding surveillance by agencies is one such issue where disinformation was blatantly spread in order to malign the government.
The opposition had started insinuating that the Modi government is converting India into a police state. However, when seen from a wider perspective there was nothing notorious about this notification. The UPA Government brought the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring, and Decryption of Information) Rules, which says that ‘No person shall carry out the interception or decryption of any information except by an order issued by the competent authority’. The UPA Government in 2009 made it compulsory that only authorized agencies can carry out surveillance but it did not specify the authorized agencies which left enough scope for unlawful and illegal surveillance. Thus, in the situation where the authorities which could exercise the powers of surveillance were not specified, there were chances of probable misuse. Modi government has thus only rigidified the powers by specifying the authorities that are competent to carry out surveillance and has only narrowed down this power and made it more reasonable.
Now, in a background of the opposition crying foul against the said notification, a senior Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) official has further clarified that the agencies specified in the notification have not been given “blanket powers” to intercept information from any computer. He added that the agencies are required to strictly adhere to the existing rules and stick to the book while carrying out such action. The official told the PTI that there is no new law, no new rules, no new procedure, no new agency, no blanket powers, no blanket authorization and it is the same law, same rule, same procedure and the same agencies.
Moreover, when these agencies were listed in the December 20 notification, the home ministry had reiterated the Standard Operating Procedures of 2011, which mandates that every interception requires prior approval of the competent authority — the Union Home Secretary or the State Home Secretary. The MHA official said, “The notification is nothing but a listing sent to the telecom service providers in order to ensure that only authorized and designated agency can go for interception of the communication and there is no misuse by unauthorised agencies or unscrupulous service providers.” The official also said, “The absolute number in interception has gone down even though the number of users has increased manifold. The percentage of interception has gone down even further.” This debunks the opposition propaganda that the Modi government is converting India into a “surveillance state”.
With this clarification, the opposition has once again been exposed trying to sensationalise an issue and propagating falsehoods about the Modi government. It is clear that the opposition is desperate to create an atmosphere where the citizenry looks at every government action with suspicion. However, it is clear that falsehoods cannot be sustained for long and such negative propaganda is bound to bite dust sooner or later.