Welcome to China, parts of Taliban occupied Afghanistan and the Emergency.
My Dad used to tell me stories about Indira Gandhi and the Emergency in the late 70's. I could never relate to what he was on about. Apparently, newspapers and radio were severely edited, radio was edited. People ran scared because they had no information and propoganda ruled the roost.
Cut to 17th July 2006. 30 years later. The government, in it's infinite wisdom, has decided to block Blogspot. Rediff quotes 'Bloggers in India are getting together to protest against the sudden blocking of popular Google-owned blog-hosting site Blogger by some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Spectranet, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Reliance Powersurfer, Airtel Broadband and Sify. J Grewal, Spectranet's Delhi representative at the National Internet exchange of India, told this reporter that, on July 15, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had sent ISPs a list of sites to be blocked. R H Sharma, senior engineer with MTNL, said the list ran into some 22 pages'
A list of 22 pages? Who the heck is the DoT to tell me what I can access and what I can't? According a body called the Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-IN, Web sites can be blocked if they contain pornography, speeches of hate, contempt, slander or defamation, or if they promote gambling, racism, violence or terrorism.
I'm wondering. Do Narendra Modi's speeches get posted online? Is that website still up and running? There are websites that have the Hindus cursing Muslims, Muslims cursing the Hindus and anyone else, Jews, Shi'ites, Serbs etc etc etc. Are they still accessible? Has anyone put a block on them? The other excuse is 'Terrorists use blogs to pass information'. That's cool. Block the blog. Terrorists make phone calls too. Landlines and Mobiles. So lets knock the phone networks down next.
I used to wonder about people in China and in the Middle East who would have sites that they were not allowed to access. I would think that it was so fundamentaly wrong to deny any person the right to information. I would thank my stars that I didn't live in China. Or Saudi. Or Afghanistan.
Turns out now, that I don't need to.
Welcome censorship. What's next, I wonder.
Cut to 17th July 2006. 30 years later. The government, in it's infinite wisdom, has decided to block Blogspot. Rediff quotes 'Bloggers in India are getting together to protest against the sudden blocking of popular Google-owned blog-hosting site Blogger by some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Spectranet, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Reliance Powersurfer, Airtel Broadband and Sify. J Grewal, Spectranet's Delhi representative at the National Internet exchange of India, told this reporter that, on July 15, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had sent ISPs a list of sites to be blocked. R H Sharma, senior engineer with MTNL, said the list ran into some 22 pages'
A list of 22 pages? Who the heck is the DoT to tell me what I can access and what I can't? According a body called the Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-IN, Web sites can be blocked if they contain pornography, speeches of hate, contempt, slander or defamation, or if they promote gambling, racism, violence or terrorism.
I'm wondering. Do Narendra Modi's speeches get posted online? Is that website still up and running? There are websites that have the Hindus cursing Muslims, Muslims cursing the Hindus and anyone else, Jews, Shi'ites, Serbs etc etc etc. Are they still accessible? Has anyone put a block on them? The other excuse is 'Terrorists use blogs to pass information'. That's cool. Block the blog. Terrorists make phone calls too. Landlines and Mobiles. So lets knock the phone networks down next.
I used to wonder about people in China and in the Middle East who would have sites that they were not allowed to access. I would think that it was so fundamentaly wrong to deny any person the right to information. I would thank my stars that I didn't live in China. Or Saudi. Or Afghanistan.
Turns out now, that I don't need to.
Welcome censorship. What's next, I wonder.
posted by Sweta Jagirdar at 10:55 PM
6 Comments:
very well written!
Its so frustating to see the government doing everything so wrong and screwing up things so badly!!..It makes me angry..and next thing u know newspapers, cell phones...everything will be banned!!!
This is sheer stupidity...they are just trying to cover up their asses by doing this!
hi riggs,
DoT is the Internet God of Indian Origin, riggs. What they say is final. I don't think being rebellious is a solution.
What our Indian Government does know is terrorists also use 5-star Hotel lounges for striking deals. They don't usually hang-out at pubs because its too noisy for them to communicate, which technically means, you, me and my BIL are safe.
Sorry for being your mouth-piece riggs but Mr.Anand what has the government done that requires them to cover their asses by blocking blogs? Please explain.
Yours expectantly.
Hi Qwerts,
I agree totally. I think they wait for the 5-Stars to have food festivals, you know, Afghan Food Festival or Food of the Frontier or etc just so the terrorists can be comfortable whilst conducting their businesses. Nothing like making a top notch plan over food just like Mummy, Suleiman and anonymous chap with black headgear used to make.
I think, using RTI, we should find out which 5-Star is hosting the next DoT and IT and CERT-IN conference, just so we can have the chef's make food from the frontier.
If Kapil Sibal is unnacceptable, what are your views on Ram Jethmalani?
Yours Planningly,
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