Amit Shah Using Face Technology to Mislead the Delhi Violence Probe: CPI(M)
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPI(M) – has asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah that he should stop the draconian misuse of technology to identify the culprits involved in Delhi violence.
In a statement issued today (March 13), the party condemned Amit Shah’s claim 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 protesters with violation of law,” CPI(M) said in its statement, adding that there are clear video footage to suggest that the police was involved in breaking down CCTV cameras and facilitating the rioting mobs.
.@DelhiPolice – Why are your personalle on ground braking CCTV cameras?
What do they want to hide? pic.twitter.com/OB0aKk63ML
— Ankit Lal (@AnkitLal) February 26, 2020
“It implies that the footage itself used as evidence for processing could very well be chosen in a partisan manner,” the statement added.
According to CPI(M), the Delhi Police and the Ministry of Women and Child Development have admitted before the Delhi High Court that the face recognition system had an accuracy rate of 2 per cent in 2018 which subsequently dropped to a meager 1 per cent in 2019 and could not even make a gender distinction.
| “All the so-called investigations will soon die down and people will forget about them. Then new violence will take place and people will shout again for a few days. This is the new normal in India.“ |
“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 statement said.
It added that 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.
There is no legal framework, or any judicial order to back the deployment of such technology for the purpose indicated by the Home Minister. Such indiscriminate use of this technology is an infringement on privacy rights as well as the freedom of protest. https://t.co/JpQE6uTJci
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) March 13, 2020
Amit Shah said in the Lok Sabha that 52 people were killed and 526 injured in the Delhi violence, while 371 shops and 142 houses had been destroyed.
