Jaitley praises terror arrests, defends computer snooping

"Well done NIA for cracking the dangerous terrorist module," Jaitley said in tweets.

"Would this crackdown of the terrorist module by NIA have been possible without interception of electronic communications?"

The Congress and other opposition parties have attacked the government's order empowering 10 agencies to intercept and monitor data in computers and even seize devices. "It's only going to prove to over 1 billion Indians what an insecure dictator you really are," tweeted Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Jaitley said the order was under a 2009 rule and the opposition was "making a mountain where even a molehill doesn't exist".

The ISIS-backed terror module was planning major attacks on VIPs and at public places in north India, especially Delhi.

Jaitley tweeted: "Were the maximum intercepts done during the UPA Government? Surely George Orwell was not born in May, 2014."

He said national security and sovereignty are "paramount" and added: "Life and personal liberty will survive only in a strong democratic nation - not in a terrorist dominated State."

On Wednesday, the NIA said it had caught a group led by a cleric operating in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, which was planning suicide attacks on the country's vital installations and VIPs. It had planned to strike at the Delhi police headquarters and the local office of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Republic Day, said sources. Ten people were arrested.