US spy network: Indian govt should lodge protest, says CPI(M)

Voicing concern over reports that Indian citizens were a major target of snooping by US spy agencies, CPI(M) today asked the government to protest the violation of their rights and take steps to ensure that these agencies do not violate the country's sovereignty.
"India must immediately protest such violation of its citizens' rights and violation of its sovereignty...India must also press for an immediate initiative to democratise internet governance and ensure that US intelligence agencies do not override the sovereignty of countries and the rights of individuals," the party Politburo said in a statement here.
"Not only should the government of India protest against the intrusive intelligence gathering by the US with the help of companies like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Facebook etc, but India should also join hands with other countries to make these companies accountable to people who use their services across the globe," it said.

It was "significant that India is a major target of such intelligence gathering. It is the fifth largest target of such snooping, even ahead of countries such as China and Russia."
The CPI(M) said the recent exposure of the US National Security Agency mining internet and telephone data for intelligence purposes "violates the sovereignty of nations and the privacy of individuals who use such internet services."
The US official defence, including President Barack Obama's own response, was that "the NSA was spying only on 'foreigners'; no US citizen's privacy was violated and no US laws were broken; and this was being done in the US national interest," the major Left party said.

The media reports indicated that major telecom companies like Verizon, AT&T and internet companies such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple and Facebook "have, in effect, become tools of the US government under the PRISM project. They also intercept cable lines for this purpose."
"It is now clear that the current control of internet and its global governance under a US Department of Commerce contract means that the US government controls the internet.
"With the increase of internet's importance to global communications, the dangers of such untrammelled control for other countries and the rights of its citizens are now clear," it said.