Amit Agnihotri By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Citing leakages of Aadhaar data, the Congress has red-flagged the DNA bill saying not only did such profiling of citizens violated their right to privacy, the legislation was introduced in parliament in a hush-hush manner.

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi pointed out how the government first listed the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018 in the Rajya Sabha during the monsoon session but quickly withdrew it fearing an Opposition backlash only to notify it in the Lok Sabha’s list of business late on August 8 night and introduce it the next day.

“The idea was to resist the opposition to introduction of the bill. The magnitude of desperation of the Modi government is so huge, that they did not even wait for the Ministry of Electronics and IT to present its Data Protection Bill, as the DNA Bill violates the principles of the Srikrishna Committee Report on data protection in India and the Personal Data Protection Bill submitted by the committee,” said Singhvi.

“We demand the DNA bill be withdrawn,” he said.

He alleged the recent government flip-flops over Aadhaar data, Supreme Court recognising right to privacy as fundamental, date collection through tainted global firms and absence of a data protection law were centre’s attempts at snooping into the lives of common people.

Getting into the specifics, the Congress leader said among the major loopholes in the DNA bill were related to selection of members of the DNA Regulatory Board, Data Processors and Data Collectors do not have compliance to ensure data protection, Entitlement of powers to DNA Regulatory Board overpowering judiciary, no information to Data Subjects about data sharing with third parties and no clarity on deletion of data.

Noting the DNA database could lead to be another Aadhaar like data leaks, without adequate protection and safeguards, the Congress leader said there was greater risk of information from DNA profiling getting misused to create a profile of an individual and use it for surveillance as well as for making profits.

“DNA samples can reveal not just how a person looks, or what their eye colour or skin colour is, but also more intrusive information like their allergies, or susceptibility to diseases,” he said.

Talking about further shortcomings in the DNA bill, Singhvi said that while there was no guarantee of data security, the legislation was not in line with the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Also, the Bill will not only give intrusive details like DNA data, but also gender and caste which are sensitive from a sociological aspect.

Finally, the Modi government did not hold a single consultation with stakeholders and civil society on such a sensitive Bill which reeks of mal intent, Singhvi added.