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Op-Ed JULY 30, 2021 | The Indian Eye 14

the twitter war, lockdown and pegasus

Views and opinions from the top commentators in Indian media

ot since Google aban- fault of fact and logic. Towering
doned China in 2010 – a
Ndecision it has since in- numbers can be as mesmerizing
tensely regretted – has any plat- as giant statues and bullet trains,
form been willing to forego a na- and vastly easier to supply.”
tional or supranational market Sukanta chaudhuri,
The Telegraph
in order to resist government
pressure. Unless their immense congress dilemma
resources can secure victory by
attrition, private power decides he Congress has grappled
to lose every time. with the issue of counter-
But here is the interesting Ting the BJP, with Modi’s
bit. They don’t lose their own popularity, Amit Shah’s elec-
terrain. The essence of their toral engineering, and its own
strategy is giving up users’ rights directionless and disconnected
in order to secure their busi- top leadership aggravating its
ness. Politicians who run gov- problem. Nothing seems to stick
ernments, meanwhile, seek (let on ‘teflon’ Modi, not corruption
us be euphemistic) ‘influence’ allegations, not questioning his
over the people, whom they In an India-sized country, any statistic can seem huge, even if dwarfed by intent or policy decisions and
can learn about, propagandize, others left uncited (ANI) not questioning his party’s ‘an-
measure and inflame most ef- ti-minority’ approach.
fectively in their role as users, flourishes. This leads to the cre- age of vaccines, but the minister Rahul Gandhi’s ‘suit boot
with the assistance of platforms. ation of an inverse panopticon. knows it’s owing to mismanage- ki sarkar‘ jibe did hit the PM,
These similarities aside, it is This leads us to Thomas ment by state governments. In forcing him to pull back from
also true the fight between GoI Mathiesen’s synopticon. He that case, a shortage at point A diluting the land acquisition
and Twitter is the most cartoon- used this concept to refer to should be balanced by a glut at Bill and turning to welfarism.
ish. Yes, Twitter has dragged its mass media initially and it is point B. Yet the latter seems the And yet, it didn’t affect him
feet, bought much space for the reverse of the panopticon, case only at private hospitals. electorally, nor did it bring
virtue demonstrations on its in that the many watch the The simple-minded would con- Congress any gains. Perhaps,
concerns about users’ priva- few. A shift from “Big Brother clude that few people can afford because Modi realized the po-
cy, and even went so far as to is Watching You” towards “Big market rates, and the 25 per cent tential damage it could cause
comply with the requirements Brother is you, watching” is in- commercial quota needs reduc- and changed track very quickly.
of US copyright law with Ravi evitable. Today, we see that pow- ing. At least two chief ministers Demonetization of Novem-
Shankar Prasad’s account.” erful groups such as politicians have said as much, to no avail. ber 2016 became an easy stick to
by Mishi choudhary & fear the media’s surveillance of In an India-sized country, any beat Modi with. After all, it was
eben Moglen, them. Together, the panoptical statistic can seem huge, even if a damaging and unnecessary
The Times of India and synoptical processes place dwarfed by others left uncited. policy measure, which yielded
us in a viewer society in a two- The allotment of x lakh vaccines nothing. The Congress used it
Surveillance issue way and double sense. The rapid for a state is acclaimed, con- to the hilt, but the results of the

ooking at the enormous rise of the synoptical side of this cealing that the demand runs 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly
society can create a neutralizing into crores. The minister’s early election are proof of how little
backlash against the Peg- effect on panopticism. Scholars tweets, besides reviling the Op- this flawed policy measure ac-
Lasus Project from across view such a potential rise as a position, stated the projected tually hurt Modi’s BJP. Rahul
the world, it can be said that method of resistance to digital supply of vaccines per month. Gandhi kept alleging demon-
there is a growing push for what
can be termed as “bottom-up surveillance and dataveillance.” That means nothing unless set etization benefited Modi’s few
surveillance”. With powerful ishika garg, against the amount required, the ‘crony capitalist friends’, but vot-
entities exercising control over The Indian Express amount manufactured or import- ers were not enthused.”
ruhi tewari,
ed, and the long-term immuniza-
individuals’ personal data, indi- Vaccine shortage tion schedule. One-off statistics The Print
viduals may argue that they too cannot buttress a rational plan.
can watch back. The demands ur new Union health
of these people are based on minister is rightly con- I would not dream of call- Every week, we look at what
the fact that one’s privacy and Ocerned that across India, ing our rulers irrational. Rather, the top commentators in the
freedom cannot be taken for people are queuing fruitlessly their sagacity tells them that their Indian media are talking about
granted and that democracy for Covid shots. Again, the sim- trusting subjects can be fobbed and bring to you a slice of their
off with impressive noises in de- opinions and comments.
cannot sleep while surveillance ple-minded would infer a short-

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