Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Blocking of blogs... outrageous

I had written this mail in the morning od 19th July, when I was outraged with what the Indian Government was doing... Am posting the same in my blog postdate, to make this a sticky post to stay at the top of the posts for a few days...

" It is time we did something about the move of the Indian Government blocking blogs. There are a few blogs that do have objectionable content, it is true that there are a few which have to be blocked in the interest of national security, but taking the shortcut route and blocking out everything from typepad and blogger is outrageous. For the first time in 23 years of my existence, I feel muzzled, and I feel angry.


I have been blogging for two years now, and this is one forum that has provided me an outlet for many a rave and a rant. There are issues that need to be raised, and communication that should be done, and blogging is an effective way of doing that. Though I agree with Saket's view that the blogging community in India is not matured enough to be taken really seriously, nonetheless, there has been a burst of blogs of late, which has not just been about one's boy/girlfriend, but also about how the toast should land the butter side up.

The right to freedom of speech and expression is something that is guaranteed to us under the Constitution. This is, however subject to the threats of national security and objectionable content as outlined in the Indian Penal Code. However, the steps that are taken by the Government is illogical and foolish. Rather than issuing specific notices about which blogs they find objectionable, the Government blocks out blogs in totality! I am all for pro-institution, and that the Government should be given support in order for them to run smoothly, but the Government seems to be overdoing it.

My sympathies and deepest condolences to the affected in the Mumbai serial blasts.

I know that nothing I say would ever heal that which has been taken away, but the Government has to understand that blocking blogs is not the way to address the issue. This would, in my opinion, only add confusion because content that is perfectly harmless is blocked.

It is time that we the people, whether we are bloggers or not, should come out of our stupor and do something. Today it might be blogs. Tomorrow it would be the whole net, and we might be going the China way, where everything but these few sites are blocked.

I plead the readers to please forward this message to as many people as possible, and raise the awareness levels.

Most of you whom I am writing to, I know personally. I hope you understand that this is something which hurts at the very basis of us being Indians, and having pledged to ourselves the Indian Constitution.

To read more on this, please read the following article. It is written by a well known bangalore based blogger, Kiran Jonalagadda .

If you want to know more, perhaps this is the site for you. One of the most famous Indian bloggers on the net, Amit Verma, writes this article on the banning of blogs."


--
Love, laughter n keep the Faith

Sagnik Ghose

1 comment:

Debalina Das said...

darlin' blogs are back !! As in blogspot is back..

DisclaimeR

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