Apple-FBI fight shows why India may never get its Silicon Valley

In India, we dream big. Or rather, daydream big. One day we hope to have our own Silicon Valley (Bangalore's dream), our own Google, our own Amazon (Flipkart is trying hard) and our own Apple.

But we, almost certainly, will never get there, unless we change something drastically within the country. This is one lesson Apple's fight with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should teach India.

The problem with India is an absence, often, of the rule of law, at least in practice. There have been instances where we have not had any rule of law, instances that are increasing. All we have, in fact, are emotions and actions that justify reactions. The rule of law is either missing or comes in only when the damage is done.

Apple's fight with the FBI is one that you can call passionate. It is related to national security and terrorism, a topic about which it is hard not to get emotional.

Apple is refusing to unlock an iPhone used by the San Bernardino terrorist, who killed 14 people. The company is saying that privacy of users trumps the need of the government's overarching surveillance.

Now, it is not implying that the government should not get into the phones of terrorists. But it is saying that the FBI should do it on its own, instead of asking Apple to spy on its own users.

Imagine a company, let's say ABC, doing in India what Apple did in the US. Here is what will happen the day the ABC CEO publicly launches an attack on the government's unjustified demands, the way Apple's Tim Cook did:

1. A vicious campaign will be launched against ABC on Twitter and Facebook. The company will be called anti-national and there will be personal attacks on the CEO.

2. Some groups will take out ABC products and start to burn them on roads.

3. Some other groups will lead mobs and attack ABC stores, break property, vandalise. Cops will not intervene.

4. Some people may try to physically harm ABC employees. There will be no protection from cops, or the government.

5. The government will make an emotive plea, branding ABC anti-national. ABC won't be told what laws it is flouting. It will be simply declared an enemy of the nation.

6. The tax department will swing into action. There will be charges that ABC violated tax rules, forex rules and so on.

7. The ABC CEO will be called to the court (which is fine), but then he will also be thrashed by goons in the court while cops look away.

8. There will be a campaign to boycott ABC products. Anyone using an ABC phone will be branded "desh drohi", and may be even thrashed in public for using the product of an "anti-national" company.

9. The government will threaten to cancel ABC's licence, registration.

10. The government will probably arrest senior ABC executives, put them in jail to "teach" them lessons.

All this will happen in the middle of a shrill debate and depending on how ABC reacts, it will be either destroyed by the government or pardoned. But once the dust settles, we won't be any wiser about why all of it happened, there won't be any smart lawyers slugging it out in the court, arguing on the basis of laws.

There will be just emotional shouting and posturing all around, and ABC will either end up destroyed or will compromise to create a product that will not put the consumers first.

Contrast this with how Apple's fight with the FBI has unfolded. The fight has been mostly limited to the court, where both the FBI and Apple have cited laws that defend their positions.

There has been no burning of iPhones, no death threats to Tim Cook, no tax notices against Apple. Apple has challenged the US government in the court and yet it continues to enjoy the same shield of law that it did before it decided to turn, what many will call, anti-national.

And yes, after sparring in court for several weeks, the FBI has also decided to withdraw, at least for now, from the fight. It has said that it doesn't anymore need Apple to hack into the terrorists iPhone.

Now, this is not to say Apple always gets its way. The company, most likely, cooperates with the US National Security Agency (NSA), the largest spy agency in the world.

It also probably cooperates with the US government in a number of other cases. But irrespective of what happens, the key difference between the US and India is that in the Silicon Valley it all happens, mostly, according to the rule of law, even if on many occasions the laws seem too broad and court orders ridiculous.

In contrast, in India it gets ugly. And so ugly that it kills businesses and destroys people's careers. The rule of law and a logical debate seem to be missing when it comes to negotiating tricky situations like encryption versus national security.

This missing rule of law also creates a sense where people have a fear that whatever they build can be taken away at any time. Such an environment neither helps those who want to build big things, nor is conducive for the creation of innovative products and solutions.

Unless we fix our propensity to physically attack people and places according to our whims and start enforcing laws in a just manner, India won't get a company that can make a world-class product like the iPhone or create a service like Google. We can keeping dreaming but it won't happen.