At a time when the Opposition parties are up in arms against the BJP-led Government for giving snooping powers to investigating agencies, an RTI reply from 2013 has surfaced to reveal that around 9,000 phones and 500 email accounts were intercepted every month by the Congress-led UPA Government at the time.
The BJP that has been at pains to clarify that its order was not new but only a continuation of the UPA’s 2009 decision lost no time in making a strong counter on the basis of the RTI, filed by one Prosenjit Mondal. The response to him was given by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on August 6, 2013.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore on Saturday said the UPA dispensation also carried out a similar exercise and asked the Congress not to be “hypocritical” about steps taken to ensure national security.
The RTI reply stated, “On an average, between 7,500 to 9,000 orders for interception of telephones and 300 to 500 orders for interception of emails are issued by Central Government per month whereas.”
The reply also disclosed the list of 10 Central and State agencies that are authorised for lawful interception, which include Intelligence Bureau (IB), Narcotics Control Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigation Agency, Cabinet Secretariat (RAW) and the Commissioner of Police, Delhi.
Citing the 2013 RTI reply, when the Congress-led UPA was in power, Rathore said as many as 9,000 phones and 500 emails were tapped monthly during the UPA-2, a reference to the alliance second term in office during 2009-14.
The Government has maintained the notification on surveillance is a reiteration of the order that was amended by the UPA Government in 2008, when A Raja was the Minister of communication and information technology and Shivraj Patil was the Home Minister.
The Government’s move to authorise 10 agencies to intercept any information on computers has prompted an outcry from Opposition parties, even as its top Ministers, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, said it has been done in line with rules framed by the UPA.
The decision to intercept anybody’s computer can be invoked only in matters of national integrity and security, public order and friendly relations with other countries, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said. The earlier mechanism was not defined and it has now been made robust and accountable, he claimed.