Slashdot Mirror
Carnivore Comes To India
pamri writes: "India is getting its own version of Carnivore. According to this Times of India article,'...after investigations have revealed that Mohammad, alias "Burger," who led the Parliament attack, was in constant touch with his counterparts in Pakistan as well as within India through email ... The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has prepared a list of new keywords that are to be used to intercept mails emanating from IP addresses in India.'"
Someone was asking for evidence of this - I know its somewhat off-topic but here's some info from Human Rights Watch's report on India's "secret army" in Kashmir:
Indian security forces have intensified their efforts against militant groups, stepping up cordon-and-search operations and summarily executing captured militant leaders. Alongside them, operating as a secret, illegal army, have been state-sponsored paramilitary groups, composed of captured or surrendered former militants described as "renegades" by the Indian government. Many of these groups have been responsible for grave human rights abuses, including summary executions, torture, and illegal detention as well as election-related intimidation of voters.
Again, if India's willing to do this sort of thing, then Digital Rights are of no consequence. That doesn't sound like any kind of democracy to me
That's a bad load of anti-Indian slander from 'Anonymous Coward'. Just about the only thing right in his post was that India should focus on improving life for her downtrodden.
Here's why the post's wrong: First: India is a constitutionally secular country, not a Hindu one. (I myself am an Indian Christian, a recent convert from Hinduism). The Caste system is illegal, and practising it prosecuted under Indian law. The implementation of these laws, however, is not thorough -- inefficiency and corruption plague the Indian administration and justice systems. (Though recently, things have been improving faster)
Secondy, as far as coveting Kashmir goes, the state of Jammu and Kashmir legally merged with India sometime in 1948. A UN resolution passed then, required Pakistan to withdraw it's forces, and let Kashmir come under complete *Indian* control. India was then to host a plebiscite over the entire state. However Pakistan never withdrew... and the rest is history. You can verify this here (see page 11).
Lastly, getting down to the main topic -- I think using a Carnivore-like system to promiscuously trawl for information without a court order is wrong. An analogy would be a policeman habitually entering into people's homes to check for thieves. And I also think that the spook (it must be one of ours) who released this to our media was simply indulging in wishful thinking (fundamental rights are -- we don't have that many supercomputers.