[Marxistindia] Stop Draconian Misuse of Technology

[news from the cpi(m)]

March 13, 2020

 

Press Statement

 

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the
following statement:

 

Stop Draconian Misuse of Technology

 

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the claim of the Union Home
Minister, Amit Shah, made during the debate in Parliament on the communal
violence in Delhi that the police and the government are using face
recognition technology for identifying the miscreants responsible for the
violence.  

 

There is no way that the technology can precisely link the protestors with
violation of law.  It has been also further revealed that there are clear
video footages to suggest that the police was involved in breaking down CCTV
cameras, let alone facilitating the rioting mobs themselves, implying that
the footage itself used as evidence for processing  could very well be
chosen in a partisan manner.  

 

What is more surprising is the fact that the Delhi police and the Ministry
of Women and Child Development admitted before the Delhi High Court that the
system had an accuracy rate of 2 per cent in 2018 which  subsequently
dropped to a meagre 1 per cent in 2019 and could not even make a gender
distinction.

 

It is clear that there is no legal framework, or, any judicial order to back
the deployment of such technology for the purpose indicated by the Home
Minister. The Polit Bureau wants to firmly point out that such
indiscriminate use of this technology is an infringement on privacy rights
as well as the freedom of protest.

 

The Polit Bureau strongly rejects the suggestion of the Home Minister that
this technology does not make distinction between caste, creed and religious
identity of miscreants which, for the stated reasons, will no doubt be
draconian and needs to be thoroughly rejected.

 

 

(For CPI(M) Central Committee Office)

 

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