Nerve Endings Firing Away

What if tomorrow we wake up and everything is alright i.e. we can access Blogspot and Typepad without any hitch and can go back soon to our seemingly inane ramblings on the blogosphere. But on the flip side, the government gets all tech smart and manages to censor those “22 pages” of websites/blogs. Would that be an acceptable resolution to all concerned and involved in the current Bloggers Against Censorship campaign?

I am sure the majority of bloggers would accept that solution and go back to their normal blogging life. But thankfully, few blogger voices like Neha, Amit, Dilip [initially via email], and Confused have gone beyond the current scenario and examined the larger picture of censorship. As I mentioned yesterday, the act of censorship is as futile as it is self-defeating but it ends up setting a dangerous precedent that any speech – online or otherwise – if found unpopular can be stifled. It sets in motion a series of events that know no end as the parameters of censorship are widened each time to satisfy every section of the society.

The current list attempts to block hinduunity.org. So I am sure sometime in the future an Islamic or Christian website will be added to the list as well. Where will we stop? The cost of a liberal and democratic society is that we have to bear or listen to the extreme ends of the religious and moral spectrum. At the same time without focusing on these extreme opinions, we should focus on the significant presence in the middle that represents the opinions of the majority. Any attempt to stifle or censor the extreme viewpoints just ends up giving them attention that they rarely deserve.Let us assume for an instant that the government intended to censor these blogs/websites and we have good reason to assume that. Less than a day after Dr. Gulshan Rai, Director of CERT-IN said, “Somebody must have blocked some sites. What is your problem?” he is singing a different tune and trying to pass the buck. Now he is saying, “There’s no attempt to block www.blogspot.com from our side. The order issued by the DoT has four blogs hosted on Blogspot.com. The order didn’t ask the whole site to be banned.” The common thread in both statements is that the order to block websites has been issued. Last time, I checked such censoring behavior of seemingly small-time sites by the government was the hallmark of repressive and authoritarian regimes like China and Saudi Arabia. Also, I keep hearing that the blogs are not heard of in Indian let alone read so why is the government afraid of a medium that isn’t mainstream yet? An email or a chat session would be equally or even more dangerous to national security if terror attacks are discussed therein. Will they be banned next?
To make matters worse and as it to lend a typical Indian bureucratic twist to the story, the authorities couldn’t even implement their draconian order. Both the government and the complying ISPs have no inkling of the technology that they provide us access to.

“Indian ISPs don’t have the technology to block individual name servers — say a particular blog hosted on Blogspot. So they had no choice but to block the root servers of major blogging networks — blogspot, geocities and typepad,” said a senior official in the IT Ministry. A senior official from an ISP confirmed this.

If this isn’t inept handling of an otherwise serious matter, then I am not sure what is. Not only we have no regard for democratic and liberal principles of this country but also lack the wherewithal of implementing such a move. After the dust clears and the blame-game is over, order will be restored and blogspot blogs will be accessible again. But that shouldn’t stop us from unearthing the source of the directive and demanding the reasons for such an action. If jingoistic reasons of national security are cited, we should demand justification within the purview of the law. Dilip is bang on the target when he says:

I’m actually glad this bizarre block happened. For it opens our eyes to the way the government works and forces us to find ways to make it accountable to us. Sometimes you need something bizarre to happen, it’s the kick in the behind that makes us fight for things we otherwise take for granted.

Freedoms being some of those things.

Let us not forget that we nearly lost our fundamental right to freedom of expression. If we let go easily, then we frankly do not deserve it in the first place. I am almost tempted to believe in the cliched and famed Bollywood dialogue – haq milta nahee hai, cheena padta hai (You aren’t granted a right, you gotta demand for it).

I hope things do not get that bad although Falstaff already has already assumed the worst and I am almost inclined to agree with his conspiracy theories. To cite a line from V for Vendatta, people shouldn’t be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of the people. The government is inherently stupid [as a whole], it relies on the critical mass of the public to be made aware of its responsibilities.