Bharat’s Parliament approved the Telecommunications Bill, 2023 in the recently concluded winter session. This act will now replace three archaic laws from the years 1885, 1933, and 1950. You read the years right. They are not a typo. Up until now, we were still governed by laws passed in 1885 too!
According to the English media, democracy is either in danger in India or has already died in India. Any small action (such as waking up in the morning) by any member of the Modi government causes the death of democracy in India. The passing of the Telecommunications Act, 2023 was no exception. The usual suspects went berserk with their headlines. If you take a look at the collage below, it is clear that these media editors are still driven by archaic language from the year 1885.
However, the reasons they have given this time as a justification for their archaic rants will blow your mind. A good summary of their rants was provided by The Hindu. Wanting to stand out from the crowd, The Hindu published a detailed article under the section “FAQ” with an innocent headline – “Will new telecom bill streamline the sector?”.
And to make life easy for us, they summarized the reason why all English media editors have yet again declared the death of democracy in India. First, the Telecommunications Act, 2023 is draconian. Why? Because – wait for it – it DOES NOT allow users to furnish false particulars while obtaining telecom services. The largest group that is impacted by this draconian provision is the journalists. I am not saying it – The Hindu has graciously told us the same.
India is perhaps the only country in the world where democracy dies a thousand deaths every day because of laws that don’t allow people to lie, cheat and fabricate. And since journalists have descended from a different universe, they reserve all rights to “furnish false particulars” under the garb of doing their job. I often wonder if these people even read what they write!
The “draconian” bill apparently also provides for “legal architecture for mass surveillance and internet shutdowns”. Notice the use of complicated language such as “legal architecture” just to sound highly intellectual! What “mass surveillance” are we talking about here? According to The Hindu’s own article, we are looking at the “controversy surrounding Pegasus targetting 300 mobile phone numbers…”. First of all, the Pegasus story has turned out to be a fake one. Assuming it is true – we are looking at a whopping 300 phone numbers in a population of 140 crores! Second of all, the government has no role in private software being used for “illegal surveillance”, so it is best left to your imagination what “mass surveillance” The Hindu and their ilk are talking about.
Their arguments on the Internet Shutdown are even more nauseating. While The Hindu’s article focussed only on the Internet shutdowns in Manipur and J&K, their soul sister, The Wire, went ahead and told us that India already has the highest number of Internet shutdowns in the world, and additionally referred to Rajasthan and Odisha too.
Well, guess what? When it comes to maintaining law and order, governments all over the world have extraordinary powers to ensure peace. Bill or no bill, state and central governments already have the power to order Internet Shutdowns in the interest of public safety, whether you like it or not. Going by the administrative scale of India’s area and population, what we have seen are minuscule shutdowns focussed on small areas (except for Manipur and J&K). External Affairs minister, S. Jaishankar summarized the situation aptly, in his inimitable style – “Now, if you’ve reached the stage where you say an internet cut is more dangerous than the loss of human lives, then what can I say?”
He is right. These people do not value human life. They just want to encourage more violence under the garb of freedom of speech and fundamental rights. These people speak as if the internet has never been used for destructive purposes and feign shock when told otherwise. At one stage, it looks like these people realise that their arguments are not being understood by normal folks. So they come up with a stunning argument to create scare amongst people – sample this snippet from The Wire.
First of all, they make it sound like a KYC document is equivalent to you writing your property in the name of WhatsApp! Second and most importantly, at no place is it told that KYC is needed for WhatsApp or similar applications. The ministry has even removed the references to OTT applications from this act because they are covered in the IT Act, of 2000. Again, if the government wants to ban or control any apk, OTT or otherwise, it doesn’t need this particular Telecommunication Act! There are enough laws that give it leeway to take such actions.
If anything, this Act brings in much-needed structural changes to how the industry is governed. Certain key demands of the industry and citizens have been incorporated into the Act, thus making it easier for the industry to flourish. Significant amongst such provisions are spectrum auctions for telecom but allocations for satellite communications; the mandate of Do Not Disturb to help us from spam and scam calls; ease of deploying telecom infrastructure on private properties etc.
The English media has yet again failed to provide an accurate assessment of an important legislation. As is their wont, they have fallen back on archaic arguments expecting the people to lap them up. The people have done well to ignore them.
