Sitting in the second floor of the iconic Coffee House in central Kolkata’s College Street area, Biswajit Dey, a third year student, looked uncomfortable. He was frequently looking at the newly installed CCTV cameras in the Coffee House, founded in 1876. 140 years ago it was called Albert Hall.
“I have been coming here for more than five years but it feels different with 'it' staring at me,” Mr. Dey said. Sixteen CCTV cameras were recently installed at Coffee House for what is described as security reasons.
The move has irked Kolkata’s civil society who staged a protest demonstration in front of Coffee House. They described the installation of the cameras as an “infringement of individual liberty.” S everal rights organisations participated in the protest.
On Sunday evening, the Coffee House was abuzz with activities. Usual crowd, comprising college students, retired professors, couples and activists — mostly from city's middle income group — were engaged in routine adda or informal chitchat. Most of them were aware of the installation of surveillance cameras.
"The State is observing us all the time. The Government has asked from Facebook to handover details of more than eight thousand accounts. On the day Facebook released the report on Government's queries, we discover CCTVs are installed in one of the open and liberal public spaces of the State — the Coffee House, clearly we are moving towards a police state," said award winning film maker Indranil Roychowdhury. Few of the regulars, however, welcomed the move.
“It is timely and correct move by the management in the backdrop of security emergencies,” said B.N. Roy, a Kolkata based book seller who has been visiting Coffee House for about four decades.
The secretary of Coffee House, Tejkumar Bera also indicated that the cameras were installed for “security exigencies," while the rights activists wondered what could be the “security threat” in Kolkata Coffee House.
“This argument of having a CCTV to monitor customers for security is not making much sense to me. I am still trying to figure out the threat to the Coffee House,” said noted writer and activist Krishna Bandopadhyay.
Experts pointed out that there are no clear legal guidelines on CCTV surveillance in either public or private space. “But from a moral ground it can be regarded as a violation of ones right to privacy, implied in the Article 21 of the Constitution, which enshrines protection of life and personal liberty,” said Sabyasachi Chatterjee, an advocate at the Calcutta High Court.
