NEW DELHI: Congress has alleged "massive loopholes" in the government's proposed DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018, and accused the Modi government of making yet another "mala fide" attempt to "snoop into the living rooms of ordinary people" by introducing the bill in
Lok Sabha in a "hush-hush manner".
The
DNA Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on August 9, a day before the monsoon session of Parliament ended. The bill states that national and regional DNA data banks will be set up for maintaining a national database for identification of victims, accused, suspects, under-trials, missing persons and unidentified human remains.
Disagreeing with the draft legislation, Congress spokesperson
Abhishek Singhvi said the party was "against
DNA profiling" and called the bill "ill-conceived" and one that "brazenly violates" the principles of data protection and right to
privacy.
"The magnitude of desperation of the Modi government is so huge that they did not even wait for the ministry of electronics and IT to present its
Data Protection Bill as the DNA Bill violates the principles of Srikrishna Committee Report on Data Protection in India and the Personal Data Protection Bill submitted by the committee," Singhvi said.
Referring to the Modi government as an "absolute conformist government" and the DNA Bill as an attempt to strengthen this conformity, Congress also demanded that the government withdraw the DNA Technology Bill from Lok Sabha and put an end to any kind of surveillance on private lives.
The government must introduce a comprehensive data protection law first, encompassing issues pertaining to all the sectors and ministries of the government, and it should broaden the window for public consultation on the proposed Data Protection Bill and make it public, the Congress said.
"Existing provisions of the DNA Bill do not match up with data protection language. There is no clarity on obligations of government agencies and any entities they contract as data controllers. There is also no clarity on whether Indian citizens will have true data protection rights regarding their DNA," Singhvi said.
The Congress spokesperson also said the Srikrishna Committee report, if enacted, would be at cross purposes with the DNA Bill and that the Modi government must first clarify how it will deal with the contrarian points of view.
