We live in strange times indeed, where the rules of logic are turned on their head every day with every new executive diktat or court ruling. The latest is this new epidemic of 'privacy' -- one-sided, of course.

On the one hand, the government is doing everything it can to prise loose every shred of personal information from its citizens, through Aadhaar, PAN, voter registration, face recognition, DigiYatra, authorising the tax sleuths to mine everyone's social media chats and emails, snooping in on their phone conversations through imported malware.

On the other, it refuses to share with the same citizens the information they are entitled to in order to meaningfully exercise their democratic rights. In other words, the citizen has no right to privacy, but the government has a sovereign right to it!