Government Interference- Where to draw the line!!

The face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome
features and the caption written beneath it- Big Brother is Watching You- the words which
visualized the concept of tyranny and public interference in the new form in the much acclaimed
novel “1984 by George Orwell”. The recent controversy of BlackBerry has again forced us to
think that are we on the doomed path of such a future? I agree it is an exaggeration of the
situation the blackberry customers are facing today but no one can deny the fact that the
interference of the government in our life is increasing on an exponential basis.

The world wide known security feature of BlackBerry has been in news recently for risking
national security in India along with some other countries. This smart phone provides the facility
of extreme security in messaging through advanced encryption techniques. India has voiced
concerns over being given the access to decode these encrypted text messages for national
security reasons. The grant of permission to Indian government seems logical and the national
security has been brought into picture but can we have faith on it that it is not an infringement of
citizen’s right and our communication would still be secure even if monitored by the government
agencies when their corruption rate is echoing from all corners?

This certainly is not the first time when government has tried to have full control over every
sphere they can think of. Educational institutions have faced it over and over again. The
reservation criterion that is imposed upon them is just one of these. The feud between the health
minister Anbumani Ramadoss and the AIIMS director Dr. P Venugopal shook the whole country
when the health minister had tried to interfere in the internal matters of AIIMS. Yet again it
meddled with the salaries of the professors of the IITs recently which were resented all over.

No exception has been made in sports arena too. The autonomy of National Sports federation is
also under threat as the government has come up with the decision of fixing the tenure for the
office bearers of the federation. The federation should be supervised and government should
have a say but not at the cost of their autonomy.

The government has duties and obligations to perform. It is its responsibility takes the country to
the highest level of excellence and also to save the nation from the powers who are planning to
destroy the existence of our motherland and its citizens but for that our independence can’t be
put to auction when the authorities who promise to be in charge of it cannot be trusted.

In the present scenario, the situation which demands the concern is that how far can we allow the
government to take charge and interfere in our life? They are undoubtedly our guards chosen by
not others but ourselves but the thin line between the supervision and interference is constantly
being blurred and no one knows where to draw the line. The question as asked in the Dan
Brown’s Digital Fortress “who will guard the guards?” still remains unanswered!!!