Get the govt to review new IT rules

So your daughter is finishing college soon. She’s waiting for her entrance exam results and also applying for some jobs. Would you permit the guy who runs the neighbourhood internet browsing shop to know her name, address, phone number and keep her photograph? Would you be comfortable if he knows which websites she has been accessing?

Probably not. Now prepare to be shocked. Under the new rules of the Information Technology Act (IT rules), the government of India requires cybercafe operators to collect this information about your daughter. You’ll probably protect your daughter’s privacy by buying her a personal computer but what about the millions of fathers that can’t afford one?

But why does the government require your daughter to provide personal information to a stranger? National security, perhaps. After all, terrorists have been using cybercafes and unsecured wi-fi connections to send manifestos (usually in bad English) and claim responsibility for attacks.

So if cybercafe operators collect the names and photographs of all their customers, the authorities will be able to quickly identify the terrorists the next time they send an email message. This is an excellent method to catch last year’s terrorists. Prospective terrorists are either unlikely to use cybercafes because of these restrictions or if they do, provide false information.

The inability to use cybercafes isn’t going to deter terrorists. It’s only going to cause them to use different tactics. Ordinary citizens, however, will suffer risks to their privacy. Cybercafe owners will have yet another set of regulations to comply with. The unscrupulous among them might try to get around these rules through the well-known route of bribing the inspector.

The inspector, who, among other matters has the authority to determine whether or not the partition between two cubicles is no more than 52 inches high, will have to avoid the temptation of looking the other way for a fee.

If the Lokpal comes in to effect, it might have to appoint an army of inspectors to investigate allegations against the army of cybercafe inspectors that’ll will have to be appointed for the purpose of measuring the dimensions of cybercafe partitions. The Lokpal’s inspectors themselves, as we all know, will be extraordinary, incorruptible individuals, unlike cybercafe inspectors.

And you ask why corruption is growing?

Maybe cybercafes don’t concern you. What about free speech, which makes it possible for me to disparage the IT rules as being poorly considered? Under the new rules, users cannot post material online that is “grossly harmful, harassing, blasphemous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, libellous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically objectionable, disparaging, relating or encouraging money laundering or gambling, or otherwise unlawful in any manner”.

And who gets to decide what constitutes any of the above? No, not a magistrate or even a government officer. Anyone can send a notice to the owner of a website giving notice of a violation under any of the loose, subjective criteria. It then must be taken down within 36 hours.

Complain about bad service from an airline on your blog, and they can send a take down notice claiming it is defamatory, libellous or disparaging. In the hands of the easily outraged, aggressively hypersensitive and competitively intolerant sections of our population this will have the effect of further chilling freedom of expression. Moreover, the inclusion of the word blasphemy in that list makes you wonder which country we are in.

Actually, we don’t need these new rules to protect us from libel, paedophiles or incitement to violence. There are existing laws for that. A libel is a libel whether committed on paper or in ether. These rules, though, have the unacceptable consequence of stifling free speech. They weaken the ordinary citizen and put another coercive tool in the hands of the powerful and the intolerant. They must be reviewed.

Even though they came into force recently, they can be reversed. The government must place these rules before parliament, which can amend these rules. All it takes is for one MP to demand a discussion. There is time but it is short... only until Budget Session 2012.

Here’s what’s doable: write, call or visit your MPs. Write to the leaders of the political party you support. You’ll find their contact information at http://is.gd/loksabha and http://is.gd/rajyasabha.

Explain to them that the IT rules are an unacceptable infringement of our freedom. Ask them to demand a discussion on the floor of parliament. The government has exceeded the authority given it by parliament and every MP should be concerned. Write to the leaders of the political party you support.

The rules can also be challenged in court, especially by persons who are directly affected by it. A well-drafted PIL in the Supreme Court is also possible.

The awakening of middle India this year can yet lead to better governance if we adhere to constitutional methods. It’s not going to be easy. Parliament is not what it once was. For years, it has not changed a single rule tabled by the government. But how hard is to write to your MP? Your letter might make a difference.