Congress condemns FIR against Tribune journalist

Congress said the FIR showed it was the government's "arrogance of power" at its worst

The Congress on Sunday condemned the lodging of an FIR against The Tribune daily and its reporter Rachna Khaira over the Aadhaar data breach story. After a January 3 news report by The Tribune over breach in Aadhaar data with a headline 'Rs 500, 10 minutes, and you have access to billion Aadhaar details', the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has registered an FIR against the newspaper and reporter Rachna Khaira.

The Congress said it was the Narendra Modi government's "arrogance of power" at its worst. "Intent and Intentions of Modi government on privacy were thoroughly exposed when it had proclaimed that no citizen can have an absolute right over his/her body," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala posted on Twitter. "In Supreme Court, Modi government had accepted Aadhaar data leak! Now, instead of investigating, an evasive Modiji shoots the messenger!" he added.

Earlier, he had tweeted, "Shoot the messenger, Ignore the message! This typifies the culture and character of BJP government. "FIR against The Tribune reporter is arrogance of power at its worst," said Surjewala. He also said, "Every Indian must condemn this mindless act of the Modi government and UIDAI."

Press condemns
Various press bodies including the Press Club of India, the Editors' Guild, Indian Women's Press Corps, Press Association and the Mumbai Press Club on Sunday condemned the lodging of the FIR. The press clubs and journalists' associations dubbed the FIR as "a direct attack on the freedom of the press" and demanded immediate withdrawal of the case.

UIDAI says
UIDAI said the police case was filed because there had been a criminal offence. The authority said it had detailed the entire chain of events to the police and the reporter's name was mentioned in this context. Its statement said this did not imply that everyone named in the report were "necessarily guilty" and cited an SC verdict to assert that a person's guilt or innocence could only be decided after a police probe and trial, media said.

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