Mamata accuses Centre of snooping, says personal conversations are being recorded in a blatant violation of privacy

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has attacked the Central government of snooping in the personal lives of citizens through continued computer and phone surveillance.

Attending a gathering at the Netaji Indoor Stadium to felicitate sportspersons, the chief minister on Monday said that citizens were getting subjected to personal scrutiny. From personal conversations between husbands and wives to those conducted between friends – nothing stands spared, alleged Banerjee. The personal conversations of judges and journalists were getting recorded by phone, she added.

There is no such thing as personal privacy under the current central regime according to the Trinamool chief. Sting operations were being carried out on computers, phones and bank accounts have also come under scrutiny, the chief minister said at the programme. “Nothing remains secure anymore –neither personal nor property rights,” she said. The chief minister alleged that from democratic rights to right to property – everything stands compromised under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

The chief minister’s remarks have come in the backdrop of recent directives by the Central government that anyone’s phone and computer can be scrutinised if required. In a notification issued on December 20, the government has empowered ten agencies to ‘monitor, intercept and decrypt data contained in any computer system’.

The notification states that should any individual refuse to part with his phone or personal computer, they can be confiscated from him. He may also be arrested if required. As things stood earlier, it was only the Ministry of Home Affairs that could scan the emails and calls of citizens. With this notification, other agencies like the Intelligence Bureau, Narcotics Control Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigation Agency, Cabinet Secretariat (Research and Analysis Wing), Directorate of Signal Intelligence (in Jammu and Kashmir, North-East and Assam only) and the Delhi Police Commissioner will also be invested with these sweeping powers.

According to an officer, only ‘data in motion’ could be checked earlier. Data ‘in rest’ can now be intercepted by the above listed agencies. The ‘powers of seizure’ allow them to retrieve data that is stored.

Petitions have been filed by Common Cause – an NGO and Trinamool Congress lawmaker Mahua Moitra among others against this government notice. It has been argued that such orders are against the right to privacy.