Cyber issues have come to dominate global and local headlines this week in a quite unprecedented way. First there was the worldwide outcry following news that the American government is spying rather indiscriminately on individuals around the world. From India alone, the US government collected 6.3 billion pieces of communication, the reports said.
Now, there’s the much smaller matter of Rs 13 lakh going missing from 29 Axis Bank accounts. Several Mumbai policemen are among the victims.
The case of cybercrime hits closer home. Everyone who uses a credit or debit card, or even just email - which is most of us these days - is a potential victim.
There is absolutely no doubt that India needs to do all it can to fight rising cyber crime. At present, it is doing too little. Moreover, India must be able to protect itself from foreign governments and terrorists.
Unfortunately, we seem to be more interested, as usual, in pulling down one another. The Indian government has started setting up something called the Central Monitoring System that will monitor ALL phone calls throughout the country. It aims to extend this to emails, Facebook and other online media. The tenders are out and work has begun.
This will not save us from spying by foreign powers. Nor is it likely to curb cyber crime, which is typically done by international rings. What it will do, though, is give various police forces, and tax and enforcement directorate officials, a tool by which they can spy on pretty much any Indian they please.
Given the tendency of every kind of inspector in India, from the municipal inspector to the tax inspector to, of course, the police inspector, to extort bribes, the potential for misuse of such powers in the absence of stringent privacy laws is immense.
The CMS is also a threat to democracy itself. Already, opposition politicians including the BJP’s Arun Jaitley and former SP leader Amar Singh have complained about their phones being tapped.
With such a powerful tool and insufficient protection for individuals, there is nothing to prevent the next government – whether led by Rahul Gandhi or Narendra Modi or Mulayam Singh or anyone else – from spying on their political rivals and bending them to their will.