'Snooping' row: Rahul calls PM Modi 'insecure dictator'; Amit Shah hits back, reminds Congress of Emergency

NEW DELHI: The government's move to authorise 10 central agencies to intercept information from computers has set off a political storm with the BJP and the Congress engaged in a fierce war of words.

After a stormy faceoff in Rajya Sabha, the Congress continued its attack on the government over the issue with party president Rahul Gandhi calling Prime Minister Modi an "insecure dictator."

"Converting India into a police state isn’t going to solve your problems, Modi Ji. It’s only going to prove to over 1 billion Indians, what an insecure dictator you really are," Rahul said in a tweet.


BJP president Amit Shah reacted sharply to Rahul's tweet and reminded the Congress president of the Emergency days.

In a series of tweets, Amit Shah accused Rahul of "fear-mongering" and "playing politics" over the issue.

"There were only 2 insecure dictators in the history of India. One imposed emergency and the other wanted unrestricted access to read letters of common citizens. Guess who were they?," Amit Shah tweeted.


READ ALSO: Snooping row: Govt defends order allowing 10 central agencies to monitor, decrypt 'any' computers, opposition slams move


Earlier today, raising the issue in Rajya Sabha, Congress strongly opposed the government's move.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad alleged that "undeclared Emergency has taken final shape" and "all federal agencies have been let loose".

Congress leader Anand Sharma said the issue is serious as it is related to fundamental rights and "India will become a police state" with such "sweeping powers" to agencies to intercept information.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley hit back saying Congress was crying foul over the powers created by it when it was in the government.


Jaitley defended government's order saying that the authorisation was given under 2009 rules and accused the opposition of "making a mountain where even a molehill doesn't exist".

Accusing the Congress party of running an "ill-informed" campaign against the government on intercepting computer data, Jaitley said there is "no general snooping order" and that the Home Ministry's decision is in the interest of national security.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that ever since the NDA government came into power in 2014 the country has been under an "undeclared emergency".

"India has been under undeclared emergency since May 2014, now in its last couple of months, Modi govt is crossing all limits by seeking control of even the citizen’s computers. Can such curtailment of fundamental rights be tolerated in world's largest democracy?" he tweeted.


Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram echoed Delhi chief minister's accusation.

"I don't want to give (an) off the cuff answer, but anybody is going to monitor the computers, including yours. What is an Orwellian state? George Orwellian (state) is around the corner," the former Union home minister told reporters.

"It is condemnable, but let me say I have not studied the matter, therefore do not take my answer as the final answer," he added.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that there is already a mechanism to address the issue of national security as she questioned the government's need to bring the common man into the ambit of the new law.

"If it is for National Security, then only for that purpose Central Government already has the machinery. But, why all commoners will be affected? Public Opinion please..." the West Bengal chief minister tweeted.


CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury termed the order "unconstitutional". "Why is every Indian being treated like a criminal? This order by a government wanting to snoop on every citizen is unconstitutional and in breach of the telephone tapping guidelines, the privacy judgment and the Aadhaar judgment," he said.