Obsolete Laws And Absolute Rights- The Right To Privacy.

Obsolete Laws And Absolute Rights- The Right To Privacy.

If you read the news papers daily i am sure that you would not have missed (ok, maybe you did) a nifty little piece of news where the Government of India through its representative the Attorney General of India the honourable Mukul Rohatgi, senior lawyer,  questioned the very existence of a “Right to Privacy” in India. And he was absolutely right- there is no law till now- in India guaranteeing right to privacy. Neither in the original constitution nor in later enacted laws has the words “right to privacy” been given primacy anywhere at all. What we actually have is a collection of judgments from the various courts liberally interpreting the other fundamental rights- like Right to life and liberty under Article 21 and Right to free speech under Article  19 - as including the right to privacy of an individual as an integral part of leading a life of liberty. Or as put succinctly in the auto shankar case /r.rajagopal case - the right to privacy is just a right to be left alone- to just be.

And our various governments under a variety of political dispensations have grudgingly kept pushing the boundaries of these unwritten laws trying to gobble up an individual citizens right to be left alone. All under the radar to be sure, but nevertheless bit by bit nibbling does diminish the cake does it not? That is, right till now- when the government has taken a bold stand in the Aadhar case and told us citizens specifically- what rights are you claiming to be violated? you guys have absolutely no right at all- so shut the hell up and fall in line. Yes, the same political party which promised to trash the poisonous Aadhar scheme is now all set to trample on people’s rights once and for all to make the Aadhar scheme mandatory- never mind everyone and their grandmother pointing out how filled with loopholes the entire stupid Aadhar scheme is.

And not content with that the government is now planning to start DNA profiling- and this in a nation where you cannot even protect your customers with a mobile phone numbered registered on a “do not disturb registry” and still getting calls from telemarketers as face it, this is India, everything is for sale and whoever does get punished for violating such laws? God help the poor law abiding citizen who has to handover their fingerprints, iris scans and now even DNA to a bunch of petty crooks who collect data on contract basis for the government and get to use it first choice.

You are going to get royally, totally screwed,  by handing over all your bio-metric data- those little bits of self which makes you what you are- your entire personal identity. You can run but you cannot hide. And for all those bleeding heart liberals on social media who bleat about their right to privacy- what right? Go read the constitution- there is no right written there. And just because a couple of supreme court judges have said you have such a right- well its just their opinion of the constitution ok? If the government says you have no right- you have none- for the government is always right, isnt it? This is India – where the only right you have is – might is right.