India shifts stance, condemns US snooping

NEW DELHI: Shedding its initial reluctance to object to revelation of worldwide snooping by the US National Security Agency with the help of private internet governing bodies including ICANN, India has taken up the issue with Washington, saying such surveillance activities are detrimental to the country’s security interests.

New Delhi has particularly condemned the role of International Cooperation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, which largely governs the internet by managing critical resources including the domain name system, top security officials told ET.

ICANN, a non-profit private organisation based in Los Angeles, is supported by the US commerce department. Officials said the role of ICANN compromises India’s national security and that the country favours multilateral actors in the field of internet governance with governments playing a proactive role.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid during his visit to Brazil this week said India is worried about NSA’s surveillance activities, exposed by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Initially India did not strongly object to the surveillance by the NSA into its critical infrastructure, drawing severe criticism from political opposition in the country. In June, Khurshid had described NSA activities as “not actually snooping”.

The mood now is completely different. At a seminar in Delhi on Thursday, Nechal Sandhu, deputy national security advisor, said, “ICANN cannot really be said to be truly representative or reflective of the international character or community of internet users.”

New Delhi is apprehensive about the key role that private institutions and commercial bodies are playing in the field of internet governance.