India is forcing people to use its Covid app, unlike any other democracy

The choices India has are

Either don't take the steps follow what happened in US, Italy, UK, china and other countries. India does not have the medical infrastructure these developed countries have and has a billion plus population. The death rate will dwarf anything in the world and would overwhelmed the medical facility of the country.

Take steps and it "might" infringe on the privacy of citizen.

I know BBC, NYT and other western news organisation were disheartened to see so less Covid-19 related deaths in India compared to their own countries but I would rather have less death. My present employer (not the ones mentioned in the article)and I am glad as WFH will stop .

But I do agree the 1984-ish situation is built on fear and i truly hope government open-sources the code and takes steps to protect privacy. We are in unprecedented times.

As has become the norm when it comes to news about India; the article while making some good points, impugns and insinuates motives where there are none.

The situation is absolutely unprecedented and Indians are VERY THANKFUL that the government did the early lock-down for a month-and-half to contain the spread. This has dramatically cut-down the infection and death rates. In fact we have been watching aghast at the response shown by the so called "developed countries". All sorts of arguments have been trotted out to justify themselves but the truth is that they are directly responsible for many of the unnecessary deaths of their own people.

India with its unique characteristics i.e. huge population and density, poor infrastructure, insufficient medical resources, poverty/cleanliness limitations, a large unskilled/uneducated labour pool etc. needs a STRONG AND DRASTIC response if it is to avoid the fate of the most stricken countries of the world. We simply have no other options.

Thus in order to move out of a full lock-down, the govt. has designated red(full containment)/orange(partial containment)/green(relatively free) zones to restart economic activity. But people being people, how do you enforce it? By using technology to do comprehensive tracing of everybody using the "Aarogya Setu" app. There is no other way. Fortunately given that almost everybody(rich and poor alike) has a cellphone, this can be done by govt. mandate. All perceived problems w.r.t. "Big Brother/Surveillance State" etc. can be put on the back-burner for now until we are out of the current World War-Virus(WW-V) situation. While most Indians are onboard with this approach, there is a small vocal minority (mainly political/media folks) who are making noise simply due to their vested interests. This is unnecessary at this point and can be taken up after we are out of WW-V. We do know how to fight for our rights but this is not the time for it.

A Journalist is charged with Sedition for reporting poor Coronavirus Response https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46631911

And a pregnant women is imprisoned for criticizing Modi regime https://archive.vn/dfD7d

India is Feudalism masquerading as Democracy;