Letters 19 October 2021

A long road to accountability

Kaushik Jayaram in Digital ID: A Single Source of Truth concludes by saying "Civil society can try to ring-fence its use as much as possible by questioning its essential premises." And, "A people’s panopticon or open-source intelligence might be the answer to the state panopticon. Technology could be harnessed to fight technology."

The question of civil society ring-fencing, much less questioning the state on this count is a far cry, with the feverish pitch launched by the state for polarisation of society, the use of Pegasus and related applications on innocent civilians, and witch-hunting of dissenters. With all this, "the state panopticon" is already in its place. It's a long, long way to go for the spirited and aware citizenry to get united and hold the state accountable.

Commentator name
D.S. Ranga Rao