In a move which is likely to trigger huge public anger and resentment similar to the one witnessed soon after the demonetization drive was announced, the BJP-led Central Government announced yesterday that it had formally accorded its consent to 10 Govt.-controlled agencies the right to tap/monitor the citizens’ phones and computers.
 
An order in this regard, signed by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, was released yesterday.  It said that the Order was being issued under the powers vested with it from the Information Technology Act, 2001.  The order said: “…hereby authorizes the following security and intelligence agencies for the purposes of interception, monitoring and decryption of any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resources under the Act.”
 
The agencies ‘authorized’ in the order include the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), National Investigating Agency (NIA), Cabinet Secretariat (RAW), Delhi Police Commissioner and Directorate of Signal Intelligence (in J&K, North-East & Assam).
 
The words ‘intercepting and monitoring’ mean that the Centre, if it wanted, can read/edit and reply to messages received in citizens’ computers without their knowledge.  Photos/videos stored in lap-top and e-mails would now be ‘exposed’ to the mercy of the above-said agencies once the order comes into force.  Privacy of the people has thus been ‘hijacked’ in an unimaginable manner by the Centre.