There's something unifying most political parties in power, not just in India, but even in nations like the United States of America. Wondering what that is? Well, surveillance on unsuspecting citizens and to a certain extent, internet censorship. In a free country, this shouldn't be something we have to worry about. Yet, be it Congress or BJP--controlling people by curbing their freedom on the internet is instrumental in wielding oppressive power against citizens by two of India's largest political parties. However, Mahua Moitra, a politician from West Bengal's Trinamool Congress, is fighting this norm.

According to a report in a leading daily, Moitra has moved the Supreme Court in this regard, filing three petitions for the cause. One of them is linked to the UIDAI using Aadhar to keep tabs on people; while, another is against the Ministry of Home Affairs' recent decision to give some government agencies the power to monitor computers. Other than this, she has also filed a case to keep the government from intercepting computers in West Bengal.

A lone fighter against a potentially draconian set of rules, she's filed public interest litigations with her own money, using her lawyers for the benefit of many unsuspecting Indians, clueless about what the government is doing. An economics student and a former investment banker, she has often been termed a "memsahib" for having broken Bangla and international work experience--and yet joining the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC. All that aside, she is still genuinely trying to do something all of us will benefit from. Here's why.

In case you're unaware, manipulating elections by monitoring the public, controlling media channels, and curbing people's freedom of speech on the internet is a huge threat to personal freedom. But, since it allows governments to keep tabs on people and win votes by making them privy to people's thoughts and beliefs, they still try to go ahead with it despite it being unconstitutional.

However, if you think the BJP government is alone in doing this, think again. As the Information and Broadcasting Minister under the UPA government, Kapil Sibal had ensured that section 66A of the Information Technology Act was arbitrarily imposed. For those who are unaware, this section of the IT Act basically gave the authorities a free pass to jail anyone who sent "offensive" messages through a communication service. Now, the NDA government's controlling measures have shut down HTN news owned by Sibal, in a stroke of irony. The lesson? People's freedom of expression is not something to be toyed with!