For a country of a billion, we are a data mine, but we are blissfully ignoring the fact that data is the 21st century’s oil as well as its deadliest weapon. It is both precious, as well as dangerous.
The casual way in which Canada embraced authoritarianism under its liberal leader Justin Trudeau, and the way the world ignored it, is terrifying. The Canadian government invoked the Emergencies Act to criminalise the Freedom Convoy protest and crush it mercilessly by force, as well as by freezing the bank accounts of hundreds of protesters that too without a court order, revoking the insurance of vehicles used in protests, and even seizing truck company assets to punish them for the participation of their contract drivers in the protest. Ironically, the Trudeau government ruling Canada has been more lenient towards ISIS terrorist-returnees and quite friendly towards Khalistanis. Amusingly, Trudeau had sermonised India on the farmers’ right to protests, but when it came to protests by the Canadian citizens, the tolerance shown towards the terrorists and the wisdom heaped on India, was swiftly replaced with a tyrannical response. The hypocrisy is glaring but not shocking; after all, the West rarely practises what it preaches to the “third world”. India has witnessed one protest after another since 2014 when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister—many of these protests were politically motivated. The Modi government did not resort to the abuse of power like the Trudeau government did with the truckers. It’s a different story that Trudeau will not be called Hitler or fascist by the assorted global liberals who love to hate Modi. But the double standard of the liberals is not the focus of this article.
It is not uncommon for the governments to freeze bank accounts and assets of terror organisations, money launderers, and economic offenders, following due legal processes. The Orwellian nightmare that unfolded in Canada, however, presents a frighteningly different scenario—that of the ability of the State to financially disempower all citizens, or a large group thereof, with one order. If a first-world democracy like Canada could adopt coercive financial measures to suppress protests, it is about time citizens living in democracies across the world start worrying about the ability of the government to shut its citizens out of their own money and assets invoking emergency powers. Such draconian steps can have a long-term impact on the citizens because in a digital age if one is flagged by the government once, it becomes almost impossible to wipe the slate clean, and even after their accounts are unfrozen, the financial and other institutions can continue to remain apprehensive of those persons.
Given the convenience of digital payments, and due to the pandemic, most citizens have stopped using cash. In the Indian context, the Modi government is pushing for Digital India. Our bank accounts, Aadhar, PAN, are all connected. So, for a government, the easiest way to go after protestors or any citizens they dislike is by going after their finances. The government can shut down a citizen’s life without even touching the citizen by simply freezing bank accounts and blocking credit cards and access to digital payment platforms. Without money, people cannot travel for protests or donate to protests, or even hire a lawyer to fight wrongful government action or detention. If Indira Gandhi led a digital economy and had the power to easily block the finances of the citizens, people like PM Modi would not have had the resources to put up a fight during the Emergency.
The aspiration to “clean India” of black money and to make financial transactions as cashless as possible, is noble. Most citizens have adopted the same, as also linked Aadhar with banks, securities, mobile service, etc. However, the Indian State is extremely poor in data protection and response to data breaches.
For a country of a billion, we are a data mine, but we are blissfully ignoring the fact that data is the 21st century’s oil as well as its deadliest weapon. It is both precious, as well as dangerous, and should be handled with utmost care. It is common knowledge that customer data “leaks” regularly from the mobile and DTH service providers, online retailers and so on. Various government agencies and institutions reveal private data quite carelessly. A voter’s address and family members are easy to find from the Election Commission (EC) sites, although one would wonder why the EC needs to map the family of the voters and put it, along with the residential address, for public consumption. Earlier, the GST payment site would give away the address, mobile number, and email of the payee by simply entering the GST number. Thankfully, the Modi government rectified that when pointed out by this writer. However, the states’ websites are a different story. As such, the database of GST payees, along with their Aadhar, PAN, and contact details are in private hands now and are easily available on the Internet for sale, thereby making GST payees an easy target for financial crimes or physical threats. It is the government’s responsibility to prevent the sites from selling the data of millions of citizens, but it has displayed the typical apathy towards data protection. Then there is the real threat of cyberattacks on banks putting customers’ money at risk. Now the additional concern of a Trudeau-like, or closer to home, an Indira-like leader, who could target citizens’ finances to silence them. The UPA government had blocked several Twitter handles that supported Modi. Several state governments file FIRs against citizens for criticising the Chief Minister. It is not preposterous to think that someday the central or some state government could do what Trudeau did to crush dissent.
Prime Minister Modi might believe that leading a financially moral life is as simple an undertaking as paying honest taxes and going digital with one’s payments, but it is far from simple for the citizens.
With so much data on systems and in various hands, the citizens are vulnerable to data, financial and identity thefts, and worse, to abuse of power by the government itself. If the citizens are expected to do certain things for the larger national interest like say financial transparency, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure the safety of the citizens’ data as well as to have enough checks and balances in place so that the citizens’ assets are safe from the data thieves as well as from the potential government abuse.
Semu Bhatt is a Mumbai-based strategic advisor and author. She writes on geopolitics and governance.