Skip to main content

 

Letters to The Editor — December 3, 2025

Published - December 03, 2025 12:24 am IST

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor-december-3-2025/article70349693.ece

Sanchar Saathi app

The rollout of the app is reminiscent of the advent of Pegasus. By dint of the government’s stout denial and the lack of technical proof, Pegasus flew under the radar of public scrutiny, but the spyware is probably out there still, doing its job. Sanchar Saathi is being labelled as a visible regulatory/anti-fraud tool. But the fact is that user consent and autonomy are removed. It has privacy and surveillance risks. There is potential misuse of data, lack of transparency or safeguards, and an infringement on fundamental rights. One has a sense of revisiting George Orwell’s novel, 1984.

R. Thomas Paul,

Bengaluru

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chaos at the level crossing

  Published in The Hindu Open Page Chaos at the level crossing  PREMIUM     It’s a stampede in slow motion, requiring nothing less than God’s help June 25, 2023 12:56 am | Updated 12:56 am IST THOMAS PAUL As the gateman raises the boom barrier, there is a veritiable stampede. | D riving across a railway level crossing during peak hours cures your low blood pressure. For instance, you are the first at a closed level crossing on a narrow two-lane road. More vehicles arrive and queue up behind you on the left lane. The right lane remains free to allow vehicles from the opposite side to come through when the crossing opens. So far, so good. A minute passes. The queue behind you is getting longer. Then the inevitable happens. An impatient cab driver (is there any other kind?) arriving last, ignores the mile-long queue in front of him, takes the right lane, and draws abreast of your car. He is in the wrong lane, but his look says, “So what?” He is swiftly...
Post a Comment
Read more

The paan puzzle

  Published in The Hindu Open Page The paan puzzle Many addicts may chew outdoors, but when it comes to spitting, they prefer indoors. THOMAS PAUL November 21, 2021 01:30 am | Updated 01:30 am IST Paan  -chewers are people of few words. When the mouth is full of paan, the words don’t come easily; it’s either chew or speak. Unlike chewed gum which can be discreetly discarded, chewed paan, when expelled, marks territory forever. Perverse  paan  -chewers may chew outdoors, but when it comes to spitting, they prefer indoors. In a homing instinct, they will locate a tall building, avoid the lift, huff up the staircase and squirt their mouthful in a stairway landing, precisely in the corner. Freshly white-washed walls are open invitations for them to splatter them red. One jugaad solution to this problem has been to install glazed tiles with pictures of deities. This is not foolproof, and only shifts the spitting a few metres from the nearest picture. We sneer at...
Post a Comment
Read more

The queue conundrum

  Published in The Hindu Open Page The queue conundrum Scientific queue management hasn’t caught on everywhere. The jostling continues THOMAS PAUL   May 01, 2022 12:38 am | Updated 12:38 am IST 01-May-2022  ...  A single counter will have at least three strands of  queues  developing in front of it, each strand competing to access the  window  of the counter ... The movie  Kaalia  (1981) featured a queue-despising Amitabh Bachchan declaring famously that queues began from wherever he stood. That shook our faith in the queue system a bit. While many of us endure queues like martyrs, the smart ones bypass them. Some clog it perversely. Bypassing the queue Confused as we usually are by movies-inspired fake pride, we suspect that standing behind somebody in a queue amounts to a lowering of status. So we level the field by stepping to the left or right. This causes a corresponding zigzagging behind us, and soon the queue ...
Post a Comment
Read more