Global trends

The attacks in Britain coming so close to the general elections that are due in a few days are disturbing. The brutality of the attacks and the copy cat nature of their modus operandi points to deranged minds using religion to justify the death and devastation. Mr. Trump took the US out of the Paris climate Agreement, first such agreement to involve so many countries and be able cobble together an agreement. and from the way things are going not too soon either.

Arab countries have cut ties with Qatar for supporting terror groups. These countries are Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain. This was termed as the “Gulf region’s most serious diplomatic crisis.”

The countries said they planned to break off all land, air and sea traffic with Qatar, and eject its diplomats from their territories. Qatar was also expelled from a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen. guardian.co.uk

The Internationally backed government of Yemen which does not control the capital and large parts of the country, also snapped off ties with Qatar. The dispute is over Qatar’s continued support of Muslim Brotherhood which has been declared a terrorist group by the Egyptian government. The Brotherhood is considered the oldest Islamist movement.

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Saudi Arabia said it took the decision to cut diplomatic ties due to Qatar’s “embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilising the region”, including the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, Islamic State and groups supported by Iran in the kingdom’s restive eastern province of Qatif. Egypt’s foreign ministry accused Qatar of taking an “antagonist approach” toward Egypt and said “all attempts to stop it from supporting terrorist groups failed”. The Guardian

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Qatari government has said that it is being subjected “to a campaign of lies” and said it has reached a ‘point of complete fabrication.’ It added that, “it reveals a will full plan to undermine the State of Qatar.”

News today

Aadhar made mandatory for availing mid day meal scheme

The government has made it mandatory for the government run schools to provide mid day meals to only to those children who have Aadhar Card. The government has given time till June 30. According to The Hindu the government primary schools where the scheme is implemented, are on a vacation, and most of the students have gone out of town.

The direction comes three months after the Union Human Resource Development minister had made it mandatory for those availing of the mid day meal scheme to have Aadhar Card. The order from the state’s education authority had asked the UP schools to make a list of children who have Aadhar Card. Without those cards the students would not be able to avail of the scheme after the said date.

According to The Hindu only 17 percent of the students have Aadhar enrollment in the district of Meerut. Another factor is the schools have closed for vacation and would reopen only on July 01.

The letter by Mr. Singh has asked all the primary education officers to submit a list of students who possess Aadhaar cards to the State government by May 30. Mr. Singh has sent a reminder to the primary education officers of Meerut, Hapur, Moradabad, Sambhal, Kannauj, Farrukhabad and Kanpur (rural) as they have not yet sent the list to the government. THE HINDU

Chinese Premier arrives in Berlin

The Chinese premier’s arrival in Berlin assumes significance in the light of Ms.Merkel’s remarks on US and Britain. She said that Germany and rest of the European Union could not depend upon US and UK. Brexit and the US election had changed the environment. She said that while they would be friends with the two countries, “we must fight for our own future and our fate ourselves as Europeans.”

His visit came amid a deepening rift between the US and Europe . After “unsatisfying” G7 talks last week , Merkel said that Europe now has to forge its own path forward, as the US and Britain were no longer reliable partners – comments that made waves through Europe. DW

Donald Trump’s anticipated withdrawal from the Paris agreement has thrown up the need to “bolster leadership” on future of the climate agreement. It appears that the ascension of Donald Trump has upset many, not the least the German Chancellor. Germany has made it clear that it would look elsewhere and make new alignments. Russia and China have assumed significance in this context, despite previous reservations on many issues. US preeminence looks precarious under the present administration.

From the newspapers

The ban on trading of cattle for slaughter by the central government was the main story in the media this week. Then there was the case of shell companies in which Sasikala had invested crores of Rupees. The Rajasthan High Court has asked the centre to declare the cow as a national animal, so all beef consumption would end. A final nail in the people’s right to decide what they will eat.

Brinda Karat’s article in NDTV dated May 31 2017, Modi Government Seeks to Impose a Food Code on Indians, delves deep into the implications of the new rules under “Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.” Modi government is more concerned with molly coddling the Hindutva brigade than working for the people who are seriously impacted by high unemployment and poor yields in the farm sector. Farmer suicides have gone up. The law only caters to the religious sensitivities of a few who hold obscurantist views and want to impose their warped idealism on the entire nation.

In Britain the ISIS has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on a concert in London* in which 22 persons including children were killed. The metropolitan police have released the picture of the person who blew himself up. He was seen on a CCTV footage walking casually in a food store day prior to the attack. Concert was attended by children and teenagers. 59 were injured in the attack. The attack has come three weeks before the general elections.

Scores of people were killed in a massive explosion in Kabul. The attack happened in a secure diplomatic area of the city. Guardian reports that the attack left at least 80 people killed and 360 injured.

The attack is the deadliest in the Afghan capital since an Isis suicide bomber killed nearly 100 people at a protest last summer, and one of the largest to hit Kabul since the 2001 intervention. guardian.co.uk

The bomb which was hidden in a sewage tanker occurred in the Wazir Akbar Khan area near the German embassy. The Presidential palace and other important buildings are close by. No group has claimed responsibility, The vast majority of the casualties were civilians.

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(The attack was in Manchester, the error is regretted)

Graffiti, he is back mon ami

It is rather difficult for a blogger to eat his words. On April 25 2017 Graffiti had categorically said that it was time to lay down arms…I mean stop posting. It was time to turn the guns into plough…or something like that…rebuild the tanks into tractors. And after all that, here it is as bright as day. Graffiti. Living and breathing again!

I don’t expect anyone to cry buckets in joy. However, there it is a journey interrupted and then resumed. It is not unknown in the world of journalism, many newspapers that went under were resurrected.

Actually, you can blame it on the cattle. The government had issued a new decree that trading in cattle with the intent of turning them into beef could invite the awful majesty of the law. Brinda Karat in her article in Indian Express dated May 29 2017 has given an insight into the law…and how it would affect the poorest. Donald Trump’s son in law is in a soup, Russian style?

So dear Readers Graffiti is back as if it had never gone!

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(The article appeared in NDTV and not the Indian Express, error is regretted)

All those things that make up life

You know for some foul reason the tea bag doesn’t stay where it should. The devil keeps moving with the spoon when you stir the tea. And then it wants to drown itself in the tea. Come on now of course I had locked it in the handle. Its a beastly thing if it drops. it would make the tea too strong…I want it just so! Yeah I do.

You know instant coffee does not taste the same any more. Once upon a time, I drank only coffee. It used to taste, like coffee. Now it tastes like, I really don’t know, like one has plunged into an under water cave with one’s mouth open and got all those things that lurk there. I haven’t been there though. I am just guessing.

Pardon me, completely off my head am I. Possibly, I would blame the tea bag for it. And you know somehow the tea kettle, electric at that, takes longer to boil. Its a mystery to me. may be because I am waiting for it to boil, they say if you watch milk boil it won’t, when you are looking away…out of the kitchen window, the whole thing would be on the floor. I don’t use milk at all, I use powder, you see those blokes who write stuff saying things like, “what you are eating or drinking is wrong,” say that milk solids aren’t good for us. So I am using the powder, they haven’t said anything about powder yet. Any way it makes good tea for me, thats what matters.

I hunt for something to nibble with my tea. There isn’t anything, the rusk got used up yesterday, and groceries are weeks away. You say to yourself, well I will make the best of it and just have my tea. Then you turn on the telly, there is a BBC tv anchor with a grave expression saying there has been a bombing incident in Berlin. Then I remember a song – Tammy Wynette? – saying “How I would like the anchorman to talk about a county fair!”

Just my thought. Why can’t everyone just enjoy their tea in the morning. They should say to themselves…no I  am not going to bomb any place, let those peaceful places reside in peace. They should go straight to the kitchen and say I will make tea for myself and see if that tea bag behaves itself or if I am able to get something to nibble on while watching the anchor man talk about the county fair…and how the children cheered.

The world would be instantly a peaceful place.

Bits from here and there

Image via Google

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Trump dropped a 9 tonne bomb on Afghanistan to contain and eliminate the IS. The Guardian reports that 36 militants were killed in the attack. The bomb targeted tunnels complex used by the terrorists to launch their jihadist missions. Afghan ministry spokesman told the newspaper that no civilian casualties occurred as they had been evacuated earlier.

Designed for destroying underground targets but not itself a deep-earth penetrator weapon, the GBU-43/B has the explosive yield of more than 11 tons of TNT. The massive bomb is dropped from air force planes and detonates before reaching the ground, resulting in an enormous blast radius. Only the Massive Ordnance Penetrator GBU-57, which has never been used in war, is a larger conventional weapon. The Guardian.

Trump said he only authorizes the military to carry out operations. He said that the US had the best army in the world and they had “done a job as usual.”

Did this bombing send a message to North Korea? “I don’t know if this sends a message; it doesn’t make any difference if it does or not,” the president said. “North Korea is a problem, the problem will be taken care of.” He implied that China was “working very hard” on this issue. THE GUARDIAN

Mr. Trump is arguably the most talked about President the world has yet seen. He has been characterized as being “unstable” by some newspaper columnists. The recent article, “All the President’s Flip-flops,” DAVID A GRAHAM, The Atlantic, April 12 2017, says that Trump keeps changing positions on issues because of “ignorance” of foreign policy. He has changed position on Syria, Chinese currency manipulation, Federal Reserve governor’s interest rate policy.

The campaign rhetoric has changed and he has shown that he is open to other  view points. However, the President gets swayed by those he is engaged in a discussion with. This has implications for the future. The checks and balances that were built into the Syrian policy during Obama administration seems to have been changed and the US involved itself directly by allowing the military to conduct airstrikes on the IS bases in Syria.

Afghanistan bombing will have repercussions on the future – air strikes, targeted military operations have had the effect of creating more monsters – this is the clear message one got when one first read about the IS. Terrorism is a hydra headed monster that develops more heads after it is supposedly contained. Osama-bin-Laden’s death did not bring freedom from terror neither is the “Mother of All Bombs” going to have the desired effect.

Poverty will always be with us

There is poverty in every country, even among the wealthiest nations. People are poor not because they could not make the grade and got left behind. The rich are not rich because they are smart, or accomplished. They are rich because of their accomplishments up to a point.

The fact of the matter is that together with the state they were able to take out a lot money from their country in order to avoid tax regime that was not to their liking – or in other words they would have had to part with a sizable portion of their wealth, if that money would have been taxed, considering everything else was taken care of it would have reached the people that needed it most.

However, here I am making too many assumptions. First that the governments would invest money to help the poor and not the 1 percent. Second, that the poor were  empowered to demand from their governments implementation of programs that would provide sustainable sources of income – that they are not again subjected to the cyclical boom and bust of industries, also the vicissitudes of the economy. That the programs are not philanthropic gestures to the poor.

There was an interesting talk in DW tv, in their program “Quadriga,” the most important take away from that discussion was that aid does not develop countries. The aid agencies – propelled by images of starving children mobilize themselves to work in those countries that are in the throes of civil war or man made famine situations. War and famine go together. Protracted wars lead to a situation where one set of people are unable to access food and they have to be on the move because otherwise they would be killed.

Aid agencies have found that they are facing challenges of a magnitude they never would have fathomed – from Africa to Middle East the aid agencies are working day in and day out to mitigate humanitarian situations that quickly balloon in magnitude. In the circumstance the best options that the aid agencies have are “band-aid” solutions.

A much bigger role that needs to be performed and that would have a critical impact on the outcomes is one of coming together of nations and agreeing to coordinate to put an end to the wars and kleptocracy that lead to situations that cause people to leave  their homes and their countries. The donor nations should say that unless the governments of the receiving countries behave themselves they would not receive aid, That they would not be regarded as trade partners.

What really happens is that the kleptocrats are encouraged to bully and starve their people and keep their countries in a state of war so that the countries who come to extract the natural wealth there, can carry on doing so. There are nations of the world which are rich in oil but the people continue live in abject poverty.

What is unfolding in certain parts of the world is a continuation of what we used to read about in the 20th century. Some countries come to extract resources, and others allow unscrupulous corporate giants to  extract by bribing those in power. For the latter the plight of the people is of little concern, they have their media relations mechanism to take care of those “irritating” things like activists and concerned citizens.

Bits of this and that

Amul ad via Google

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So, it is time for Congress to get a years supply of Kleenex. Failing miserably in UP must have come as shock to both Akhilesh and Rahul. It isn’t clear who would be the BJP choice for the CM. Although the Goa CM has already been decided by the party, he would need to prove his majority in a few days. Parrikar, the Defence Minister, is coming back to the post he held in the state. Mr. jaitley, the Finance Minister would hold the additional charge of defence, a second time in the NDA led government.

The columnists are doing a post mortem of the elections. Of course in Punjab BJP has got the boot, it was in power along with Akali Dal. Capt. Amarinder Singh will now be the chief minister in the Congress led government. Aam Aadmi Party is nowhere to be seen. It has been a complete wipe out in this election for the party, especially in Punjab but also in other states where it was contesting elections.

The fact is that  now the show is entirely Modi and BJP, more of Modi. It is, as had been said in Graffiti, becoming a monolithic party, what it bodes for the nation is to be seen. If good offices prevail then the nation can benefit from this, otherwise it is a sure road to a era of the party assuming charge of people’s lives to their own ends. Dictatorships begin in this manner. When the BJP came to power it encouraged vigilantism, beef vigilantism, enforcement of nationalism, etc.

Wealth from the cow

Image via Google

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“Gobar-dhan” or wealth from cow dung has been the mantra of many Indian agencies that are working in the rural areas, they have experimented and deployed energy generation and used the end product of biogas, ie, slurry to nourish the soil. These agencies have been able to show that through horizontal integration of the resources there can be many benefits. The cow produces milk that can enhance children’s nutrition; the biogas system can generate energy for cooking and lighting.

The system can be successful if resources like water, biomass and soil are taken care of. Rain water is usually wasted and is not stored in underground reservoir or water bodies. The water collects in puddles and through evaporation process the land is lost due to salinity. Harnessing rain water would avoid this. These things need to be taken care off before implementing the “Gobar Dhan” process. There can’t be any biomass or green matter if salinity is allowed to spread. Salinity can lead to desertification of land.

Cattle thrive on green grass, and plenty of it. The farm benefits from the nutrient rich slurry, the slurry is routed from the digester to the field with the use of a trough and channelling, expedited with water. No human intervention is required. Leafy vegetables, and staples grow plentiful.

One was delighted to spend time in an agency located  on the desert of Rajasthan in Bikaner, it was an oasis of food self sufficiency. Everything that was needed at the institution to support families living on the campus was provided by the land. And they had electricity and cooking gas because of the biogas system.

The three brick cookstove which is highly inefficient and polluting is replaced by a cookstove that is especially developed for the purpose of harnessing biogas. Also for the purpose of lighting, the bulb was of a special type. It gives off almost flicker free light under which the children can study or the family can gather around for a meal.

This kind of self sufficiency is sustainable and far removed from the industry dependent and grid dependent life. There is an implicit narrative of prosperity through sustainable means – no one lives beyond their means and none can go hungry.

Tyranny of small print

Image via Google

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The small print quietly tyrannise the consumers and the consumers usually are not aware of these. The problem is one does not have the time to go into the fine print before signing up for some service…these may be mobile services, broadband services, airline ticket bought online or through an agent, online shopping, etc.

When there is a problem, like if we have to return an article bought online, or there is some problem with the mobile service provider, etc these minutely printed words come to haunt us, they are written in a language that only people who wear black coats with that strange tie can understand. In Britain the Chancellor, Philip Hammond is putting an end to this. He has proposed that the companies put the essential terms and conditions as bullet points somewhere prominent, in a language that the consumers can understand.

Current practice is to use a lot of “financial jargon” that a lay person cannot understand in lengthy text, hold your breath, longer than Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Retailers wold now be obliged to refund faulty goods and services within 30 days. The services include those who come to fit the kitchen, bathrooms, etc. This is the first time that a time limit has been stated. The latter would have to pay for inability to deliver quality service as promised in an ad or other communication.

This was a long standing demand of the consumer organisations which has been fulfilled. The other practice that the Budget is going to put a stop to is the requirement by some online apps that ask the consumer to divulge their credit card details to them before signing up for free trial. Often the consumers intend to opt out of the service once the trial period is over, however, once they have given out their card details the matter takes on a different shade.

The consumers in India have been taken for a long ride by the companies. The time has come when the government should step in and ask the companies to present the essential points of the terms and conditions in simple language in bullet points…it would be fun to watch how Indian mobile phone companies survive this.

From the attic

There was a time when there were jukeboxes. These contraptions belted out popular music to the patrons of restaurants. The music played loudly, at least it was loud when there were few people in the restaurant, otherwise the people’s conversation and laughter, and the cutlery and waiters drowned out the the excess decibels.

People were versed with the operation of the machine, as for me, although I knew how to operate it, did not do so because it did not have the music of my choice. Also nickels and dimes were usually, in short supply in the pocket.Not all restaurants featured a jukebox. The upmarket ones never did, others which depended upon the volume of customers avoided them otherwise the customer turnover would have been less.

The patrons spending money on the jukebox afforded additional income to the establishment. Sometimes fights ensued if someone hogged the machine. All this provided additional entertainment to the onlookers. The jukeboxes were stocked with 75 rpm records, later the vinyl 45 rpm. The sound was good even at those loudness levels.

The jukeboxes were leftovers from another era, when the British/American soldiers were returning from the the war, the music would have been different too. Those days it would have included ’40’s chart busters, or waltzes, there would have been enough room to allow the patrons to dance.

After independence the music was more “Filmy” in character, Lata Mangeshkars, Asha Bhosles and Mohammad Rafis must have sung their way to the people’s hearts. Somehow the western popular music could not find place in the boxes.

From the newspapers this week

Image from Hindustan Times via Google

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There were scenes of violence in the Tamilnadu assembly as the DMK MLAs are reported to have manhandled the speaker of the House. Deccan Chronicle reports the speaker as saying: “You tore my shirt, insulted me.” He was conducting the floor test, when the DMK MLAs manhandled and jostled the speaker.

“You insulted me and tore my shirt. I am doing my work by abiding law. Where do I go and tell the public about the torture meted out to me in the Assembly,” said Dhanapal. DECCAN HERALD

The House was adjourned till 1 pm. The speaker of the house ordered the police to evict the MLAs. The governor had given Palaniswamy 15 days to prove his majority in the house, after his swearing in, but the latter opted to do it today. The DMK supremo was not in the House as he is ailing.

The Hindu reports that Mr. Palaniswamy has won the vote of confidence by 122 votes.

Of the AIADMK’s official strength of 134, there are 11 dissidents including former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam. On Friday, former Chennai Police Commissioner R. Natraj, the AIADMK’s Mylapore constituency MLA, decided to throw in his lot with Mr. Panneerselvam. THE HINDU

According to the newspaper, Tamilnadu is facing its first floor test in 30 years. Earlier the choice was clear, either Amma or Karunanidhi. The AIADMK had issued a whip asking all members to be present in the Assembly to vote, to be on the safe side. The DMK might have got a whiff of the AIADMK winning and created pandemonium in the house. However, manhandling the speaker and tearing his shirt was going too far.

Meanwhile, V.K Sashikala is cooling her heals in the prison, shorn of all the trappings of power, she has to sleep on the floor and eat the prison food, no special treatment for her, she must be cursing her ill gotten assets or the late Jayalalitha.

From the newspapers this week

Cartoon via Google

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Pakistan has witnessed a another blast in its most revered shrine. The shrine which is popular with the Pakistanis was crowded on Thursday as it is considered “sacred by the Muslims to pray there”, BBC reports. The bomber blew himself up in the shrine of Sufi Saint Lal Shahbaz Kalandar. The incident occurred in the town of Sehwan in Sindh province. The blast is being described as the deadliest in a string of bombings this week, which killed 70 people and wounded 250 others.

The other blasts and this one were claimed by the Pakistan Taliban, other militant groups, and IS. There was only one hospital in the area and it was soon filled up by people requiring immediate attention. The critically injured were being sent ot Hyderabad, Sindh which is two hours away.

Sufism has been practiced in Pakistan for centuries, most of the radical Sunni militants are bitterly against Sufism. Two separate bombings on Wednesday killed 7 people in the northwest.

A former CIA station chief in Islamabad, Kevin Hubert,  has warned that if Pakistan fails as a state it would be cataclysmic for the world. He  referred to Pakistan as the most dangerous state. The economy in Pakistan is failing, increased terrorist activities, and ballooning nuclear arsenal.

Pakistan is like the bank that is “too big to fail”, or “too big to allow failing” more appropriately, because allowing the bank to fail could have catastrophic impacts on the greater economy, Hulbert wrote in the Cipher Brief – a website for the intelligence community. THE DECCAN HERALD

Pakistan also the 6th largest population which is growing fast. he said that while “Pakistan was not the most dangerous country in the world, it was the most dangerous for the world.”

IMF and World Bank have pumped billions into Pakistan to stop it from becoming a failed state. Afghanistan the problem is that it has to be saved from Taliban, “to prevent it from becoming a safe haven for the terrorists.”

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THE DECCAN HERALD | BBC

Just like that only…!

“Bhaiji, the Railway Minister Prabhuji has said that China is way ahead of India in railway investment.”

“Arrey bhai, he ij asking for more money from the finance ministry, that ij all.”

“Han bhai! Even I try things like that with my wife. Trying to get a booster on my pocket money!”

“Our own finance ministers are stricter than the government ones, the government minister can be shifted, the one at home can’t be reshuffled.”

“You are right bhaiji.”

“That reminds me of Sasikalaji of Tamilnadu.”

“She has toppled her own party CM.”

“The whole phamily of Jayalalithaji wants to be be CM.”

“Arrey bhai what of that, the entire family of Mrs.Gandhi wants be PM.”

“I feel that instead of voting for parties we should vote for phamilies.”

“That is a good idea bhaiji.”

“For example the phamily of Mulayamji, should stake a claim to CM post.”

“then the phamily of Mrs.Gandiji should stake a claim for the same post.”

“there would not any confusion arising from party names, there will only be phamily names, like Mulayam Singh Party, or Mrs.Gandhi party.”

“That is a brilliant idea, bhai. Why don’t you moot it to the Election Commission!”

“Arrey bhai already elections are underway, they are busy catching people trying to commit election phraud.”

“Bhai, I read somewhere that BJP is scared by the heavy voter turnout!”

“Why not ji, there are heavy weights in UP who will make halwa puri out of BJP.”

“Andji I also heard that demonetization of currency has come to haunt the ruling party in the assembly elections.”

“Arrey han, just like Trumpji, he is haunting the Muslims all over the worldji. Even residents are not being let in.”

“What is the world coming to?”

From the newspapers this week

CARTOON VIA GOOGLE

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D has hasn’t ended its reign of supremacy – let me clarify the first D concerns India and the second D concerns global politics – and the US in particular. The first D has led to concerns  about Team Modi’s intentions. They are trying to put a sheen on it and failing miserably as the Indians, in large number of cases, aren’t buying it. In fact it has been said that only those who have either too much wealth stashed away or those who have nothing – nothing at all to lose – are the only ones applauding.

Now coming to Donald Trump, the second D, the world is watching with barely contained anguish. His latest is of course the wall. Then the move to keep out the Muslims from seven countries. He has now got into battle mode with the judiciary that had rejected his appeal to reinstate the travel ban. He has said that he is in no doubt that his administration will win the travel ban case. He told reporters aboard his newly refurbished Air Force One, that he was considering a brand new order.

This is one setback that has tied him in knots, it had been one of the platforms of his election campaign. The other one, the construction of a wall on the Mexico- US border has overshot the budgetary estimates. Earlier it had been projected at $ 15 billion now it has gone up to $ 21 billion.

In India, experts have lashed out at the futility of demonetization. Pratap Bhanu Mehta has warned against blithely allowing the administration to demand private data with no information on how it would be used and who will see it (Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Big Brother is Winning, February 08 2017). He says that the state has made the citizen transparent before it, while weakening protection. The citizens are submitting to the demands of the state to allow them access to our private information while making the state itself less and less transparent. It will put in place a “disciplinarian society more under the state’s control.”

As we succumb to the new found “freedom” offered by technology there are reports that the individual has disclosed to the state an enormous amount of information with no way of knowing if that information would be used against them. Counter terrorism is another excuse for the state to snoop on us. In the UK, all in the name of counter terror measures, details of text messages, phone calls, emails, every website visited will be kept on record for every citizen. This information will be saved for a year by the broadband and mobile providers.

Nick Pickles, director of privacy and civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: ‘Britain is already one of the most spied on countries off-line and this is a shameful attempt to watch everything we do online in the same way.

‘The vast quantities of data that would be collected would arguably make it harder for the security services to find threats before a crime is committed, and involve a wholesale invasion of all our privacy online that is hugely disproportionate and wholly unnecessary.
DAILY MAIL, UK

According to the privacy watchdog the vast amount of data would make it “harder for the agencies to find threats” which of course makes the operation look quite dubious. Coming back to India, one really doesn’t know which information is going to whom and how the agencies of the state are using that data. India has the most opaque administration compared to any other democratic country.