‘Declare emergency than e-swooping’

Mumbai: Instead of going for e-swooping, Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi shou-ld declare an emergency in the country, said Shiv Sena leader Manisha Kayande on Saturday.

Ms Kayande was reacting on the reports of the Union government allowing ten agencies to keep watch on personal data of people for security purposes.

“Why you need to do e-swooping? We are a democratic country. If government wants to poke its nose into people’s personal accounts, then Prime Minister Narendra Modi should declare emergency. Thus, they would have the right to interfere in people’s lives,” said Ms Kayande, who is a Member of the Legislative Council.

The Union government has authorised ten central agencies including Central Bureau of Inves-tigation and Enforcement Directorate to intercept, monitor and decrypt the personal data of people. This data could be saved in any system including personalised computer.

The order was passed on Thursday late night under the headers of ‘Cyber and Information Security’, which was signed by Home secretary Rajiv Gauba.

All opposition parties have also slammed the government’s order. The Congress state chief Ashok Chavan likened this to ‘dictatorship’. “This shows how Modi-government is fearing its own citizen. This is nothing but a dictatorship. But people of this country are supreme and they will teach a lesson to the Modi-government,” said Mr Chavan.

The Nationalist Congr-ess Party (NCP) called the government’s move ‘very dangerous’ and a ‘breach of right to privacy’. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik alleged that it was the present political scenario that made the BJP-led government ‘play the game of detectives’ across the country.

Mr Malik said that no one would oppose if someone’s computer system were intercepted if he or she were of suspicious character and that there were valid reasons to snoop on the person concerned.