I t’s hard to be the servant of a turbulent master. When it was revealed — by Reuters , mind you, not the Narendra Modi government — that India had asked smartphone manufacturers to preload Sanchar Saathi app, which allowed authorities to track users, there was an international outcry. It is easy to imagine authoritarian regimes keeping tabs on their citizens. But it’s very hard to think that democratic societies would consider such a move acceptable.

The Sanchar Saathi app had been around since January. But it was hard to work out why the government suddenly decided to force citizens to use it. Worse still it chose the route of secrecy. Forget about the sort of consultation that should precede any unprecedented move of this nature, there was a complete lack of transparency. The order

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