Modi Fearing Snooping by Cabinet Colleagues?

In a surprising move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked his cabinet colleagues not to bring mobile phones to Cabinet meetings. This decision is aimed at stopping the leakage of sensitive information and policy decisions regarding the government. The Central Secretariat recently issued a circular to this effect.

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The circular was issued at the direction of the PMO. All the Private Secretaries were asked to brief their ministers ‘appropriately’ about the government’s decision that ‘smart-phones/mobile phones henceforth will not be permitted inside meeting venues of Cabinet/Cabinet committees’. The government sources say that this is nothing related to the credibility of cabinet ministers but is based on intelligence inputs.

The government fears that the mobile devices of the ministers may be hacked by Chinese or Pakistani agencies in the aftermath of the surgical strikes. All the employees of various departments were asked not to connect their mobile phones to their official computers or laptops even for charging. Some of the key departments like PMO, Defence Ministry and Ministry of External Affair are made no-smartphone zones.