20 highlights
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In 2005, Joseph uncovered an elaborate operation on how national secrets were being smuggled out of a top-secret naval war room in New Delhi. His reports led to an overhaul of the security systems in military installations. But while he was working on the story, he noticed he was being trailed by naval intelligence vehicles.
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If he was in the UK, Joseph could’ve complained to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. This independent court is authorized to protect British citizens from unlawful intrusion by public bodies, including the state police and intelligence agencies. The rules in the UK also mandate that the people under surveillance are informed of it after its conclusion.
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In 2013, the ministry of home affairs revealed that it receives nearly 9,000 requests for phone tapping every month. It has since then denied all RTI requests for similar information.
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Over the course of his reportage, Joseph found that India’s “war on terror” had made its security institutions “more nationalistic and chauvinistic and, inevitably, more corrupt” in recent years. “The personnel have realized that blindly following orders of the executive of the day is the safest,” he says.
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All requests are routed through the home secretary of the central or state governments. In emergency cases, a top officer can authorize interception, although they are bound to inform the executive about it within 3 days. Those under surveillance rarely find out if they’re being listened to or left alone. But there are periodic reviews within the ministry of home affairs to assess the need for interception, and if it needs to be continued.
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As on date, agencies like the IB, RAW and CBI are, in the eyes of law, illegal or unconstitutional. In 2013, the Gauhati High Court said as much about the CBI before the Supreme Court stayed the order.
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In 2011, Congress member of Parliament Manish Tewari had moved a bill titled “The Intelligence Services (Powers and Regulation) Bill” to bring in judicial and parliamentary oversight for the IB, RAW and NTRO. The bill took a cue from the legislations already in place in countries like the US and the UK. It prompted some “serious deliberations in the highest echelons of the government”, says Tewari, but eventually lapsed after his elevation as the I&B minister in 2012.
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Surveillance in India has a long history. A rare documentation can be found in Open Secrets, a tell-all memoir by Maloy Krishna Dhar, former joint director of the IB.
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Some of the most revealing anecdotes are from the time Dhar was posted at the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau. The unit functioned as the eyes and ears of the director of IB and then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Here, Dhar worked 18 hours a day. His tasks included studying the electoral prospects of Rajiv Gandhi, bribing MLAs and helping sabotage key elections. Several times, he was sent to bug the office and residence of Maneka Gandhi and her family, for Indira perceived them as a threat to Rajiv’s electoral debut.
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The NTRO reportedly uses vehicles equipped with phone-tapping instruments to “randomly” tune into conversations of people in a “bid to track down terrorists”. The Uttar Pradesh government is even planning to use drones in Lucknow to keep an eye on residents’ rooftops.
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First, there’s the National Intelligence Grid, or NATGRID. This is a database fed by several government departments and ministries. It has the capacity to give intelligence and investigative agencies access to citizens’ data, including details of bank accounts, telephone records, passports and vehicle registration.
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Second, is the Network Traffic Analysis (NETRA). It would automatically intercept voice calls over the internet if they were red-flagged by keywords like “bomb” and “attack”.
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Third, is the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network Systems (CCTNS). This is a national network linking 14,000 police stations to allow for online tracking of crime and criminals.
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The Indian government is ramping up efforts to mine data from social media platforms. The German Institute for Global and Area Studies research paper notes that 40 government departments have access to a social media surveillance tool called Advanced Application for Social Media Analytics. This enables data collection from multiple social networks, sentiment analysis of the posts, tracking of users’ location and alerting authorities.
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In 2013, American whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed how the US government uses the PRISM tool to scoop up data from internet giants like Google, Outlook and Facebook. India doesn’t have an equivalent for similar mass surveillance so far, says Yashovardhan Azad, former special director at the Intelligence Bureau.
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“I think IB is one of the best organizations,” he says. “But in our society or nation, including in politics or journalism, 25% of staff is brilliant. It’s on their shoulders that 75% others ride. But the latter are either not professional, indolent or just lack a spine. That’s why you need an accountability mechanism.”
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Ahead of the 2014 parliamentary elections, two investigative web portals—Cobrapost and Gulail– uploaded taped conversations featuring a senior police officer and then Gujarat home minister Amit Shah. The conversations revealed that the state government had been tapping phones and tracking movements of a 35-year-old woman for several months.
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Such surveillance, if legal, had to go through the Ahmedabad commissioner of police. But the then commissioner of police, S.K. Saikia, said that he did not authorize any such surveillance. The conversations revealed that the surveillance was done on behalf of a “saheb”. Most presumed it referred to Narendra Modi, then the chief minister of Gujarat.
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Modi did not address the allegations. Instead, he continued the series of rallies he was undertaking as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. Meanwhile, his party colleagues obtained a letter from the girl’s father, a businessman believed to be close to Modi, saying he had requested the surveillance. The reason: He feared for his daughter’s safety.
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Today, the protagonists of the snooping case occupy the top constitutional posts in the country. In the seven years of their rule at the Centre, the BJP has also toppled nine state governments. The Pegasus list revealed that several of those under surveillance included members of India’s judiciary and constitutional authorities.