The leading article in today’s
Economic Times starts like this “India seeks to arm itself with the power to
block Twitter and other social networking sites and regions, but it may find it
difficult to do so as telecom companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
say this is technologically unfeasible and exorbitantly expensive”
It is clear that the Indian Government and
politicians are beautifully orchestrating a contradiction, by using the recent
communal tensions in Assam. To use the foul language of non-producers and
looters, their speeches will undoubtedly go like this “In these difficult
times, the Indian Government has made the difficult decision to block social
media in all the important states, for matters of internal security and running
a democratic nation.” The underscored meaning of that line will be that the
Government knows its power and seeks to expand and use the same.
It is the thought of blocking
media that’s absolutely baffling. How can the top Government officials utter such a contradiction without batting an eyelid? No clue indeed!
What the Government should rather
do is to get off their bums and actually make an effort to learn and use social
media effectively, rather than blocking and condemning a form of expression
that they cannot understand.
But the article goes on to say
that internet providers and the telecom operators have said they only have the
capability to block websites and social networking sites on a national basis.
Well, that’s a relief. Because if the Indian Government still goes on to say
that they would block, at least they would have expressed outright their intentions
to join its Chinese counterpart with open arms.
