Orwellian state round the corner, says P Chidambaram

Bengaluru: Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Friday criticised the government’s move to authorise 10 Central agencies to intercept “any information” on “any computer” and said an “Orwellian state is round the corner”. He, however, added that he had not studied the matter.

“I don’t want to give (an) off the cuff answer, but anybody is going to monitor the computers, including yours. What is an Orwellian state? George Orwellian (state) is round the corner,” the former Union home minister told reporters.

“It is condemnable, but let me say I have not studied the matter, therefore do not take my answer as the final answer,” Mr Chidambaram said. ‘Orwellian’ is used to describe a political system in which the government tries to control every part of people’s lives, similar to what has been described by George Orwell in his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

In an order on Thursday, the Union home ministry authorised 10 Central agencies to intercept, monitor, and decrypt “any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer”.