The Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday issued a notification which allowed 10 intelligence and investigating agencies and the Delhi Police to intercept, monitor and decrypt “any information” generated, transmitted, received or stored in “any computer”. The MHA notification says that the order was passed under Section 69 of the Information Technology act, 2000 and rule 4 of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009. The order soon snowballed into a massive controversy with privacy activists raising concern over the ambiguity of the notification, while the opposition too cornered the government calling it a violation of fundamental right to privacy of Indian citizens. Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted about it saying the Modi government wants to convert India into a police state. The ongoing winter session of parliament too felt the heat of the topic. There was a massive uproar in the parliament houses with the opposition accusing the government of creating a surveillance state. But is India really turning into a surveillance state?
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