In the last few days there have been two important developments about which we need to discuss.
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- Twitter continues its resistance against the Indian Government in the Toolkit controversy
- WhatsApp files a case in the Delhi High Court against the Union of India challenging the IT Rules of February 25, 2021
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The two developments appear to be the launching of a “War Against Indian Sovereignty in Cyber Space”. While Twitter appears to be clearly working on a regime change in India, it is not yet clear if the real intentions of WhatsApp are restricted to commercial implications arising out of the new Intermediary Rules and Digital Media Ethical Code notified by the Government on 25th February 2021.
However together Twitter and WhatsApp (which includes Face Book) appear to have launched a war cry against the sovereign power of the Government of India to make laws for the Cyber Space that affects the citizens and residents of India.
One thing is certain. If the Indian Government backs out of this fight, it would like the Indian army yielding to the Chinese aggression on the borders. They need to stand their ground and possibly take the fight into their grounds.
In both these fights the role of the Indian Courts becomes very important. Like the Indo-Pak dispute going to the UN, the Indian Government vs Twitter/Face Book will also go to the Supreme Court.
While in the border issues, India has taken a stand that this is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan, we donot know if the Government can convince that the dispute with Twitter and WhatsApp is also a bilateral business issue and the Supreme Court should limit its role appropriately.
In the Rafael case, the Supreme Court took a stand keeping the national interest in mind. Now under the new CJI, Justice N V Ramanan, Supreme Court has to prove if it will function to defend the Indian National interests or will be considering it as a fight against Modi’s regime.
It is OK for the media to project these disputes as between Modi Government Vs Twitter or WhatsApp and carry Twitter hash tags for debates. But it requires a high level of statesmanship for the CJI to remain neutral.
If Congress party and their team of lawyers led by Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram etc., with the assistance of Mr Prashant Bhushan and Dushyant Dave could convert the dispute as between Mr Modi vs Protectors of Indian constitution, then Supreme Court will pave the way for the Outside-Election regime change.
The strategy of the opposition is to use Indian Constitution as the tool to bring about the change of Government without winning elections, just like the Kashmir Terrorists who fight within the Indian Constitution against the Indian constitution. They will also engineer an internal strife by instigating RSS and other leaders like Mr Nitin Ghadkari to challenge the leadership of Mr Modi.
This is the background under which the Delhi High Court will take up the WhatsApp case. It is in this context that the recent interim order of the Delhi High Court making reference to the “Right to Forget” also becomes relevant. At present it remains a purely academic issue but it could soon be dragged into the political controversy.
The decision of the Delhi High Court has both positive and not so positive aspects of academic interest which requires a separate debate. We shall take up this academic debate separately after the discussions of the War at hand.
For the time being we shall restrict our discussions to the role of the Indian Courts in the current dispute.
….to be continued
Naavi
