There was no need to hold public consultations before releasing the cybersecurity directive because the aam aadmi (common man) is not impacted by it, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, said on May 18 while releasing the FAQs document for the cybersecurity directive. Ironically, just a few minutes before making this comment, Chandrasekhar praised the IT Ministry's open approach to consultations: "Two broad things are becoming signature practices of our Ministry. One is that as we create legislation and rules, we will undertake public consultations before we finalize those and then follow those rules or directions or legislation with easy to understand and easy to comprehend FAQs that go to explain what the logic is, how the rules or legislation or directions are operationalized, and what the end outcome and objective of these changes are." (emphasis…
