"Let us say that the government wants to essentially violate the privacy of citizens with this law. Is it possible? That's the question. And the answer is no because the Bill lays out in very clear terms what are the exceptional circumstances under which the government can have access to the personal data of Indian citizens. Which is, like I said, national security, the pandemic, healthcare, and natural disasters. These are the exceptions. Just like freedom of speech is not absolute and is subject to reasonable restrictions, so is the right to data protection," Minister of State in Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar remarked in an hour-long conversation on Twitter Spaces, where he explained various provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, 2022 and addressed some of the concerns that have been raised so far. "Since the bill is up for consultation, if there is anything that anybody believes is missing, we are absolutely open to having you suggest what is missing. This is a consultation process that we hold very important. And the Prime Minister has said that we must have extensive consultations on everything that we do in the digital space before it actually becomes the rule of the law." — Rajeev Chandrasekhar Why does this matter: Since the government did not publish its reasoning behind the various provisions of the DPDP Bill, 2022, this interview is the most we have to understand the government's thinking. On exemptions to government agencies No wide exemption to the…
