Unbelievable and equally absurd things do take place in India. Quite regularly. And nothing comes close to the sycophancy of the Congress guys for their Madam Sonia Gandhi and PM.
Recent episode of Shri Kapil Sibal and his extraordinary avowal and blatant wish to 'actually censor and effectively control' the content on the World Wide Web was an indication of how the tenure of this UPA is deteriorated.
I mean it is absolutely strange and silly to even imagine, a top level babu sits in Sanchar Bhavan in Dilli and sifts through the uncountable and varied content on the web!
And a separate entity 'Department of Internet Scrutiny' is carved out to decide what content is appropriate and what is out of place. This department would invariably report to Minister for IT and Telecom! By the way there are almost 100 million net users in India as per Internet World Stats reports and the number is continuously growing.
And who knows I 'will not be able to opine freely on this blog' as per the Constitution if this proposal of Mr. Sibal really happens. Even if that same Constitution gives me freedom of speech! Mind it - this is one of the fundamental rights.
What is really baffling is the fact that Mr. Sibal chose to speak about this restriction and put forth the scenario of concern about the content that can jeopardize communal harmony. However it was too obvious that he was more anxious about the content against the Madam G and PM-ji. One can understand if there are external/ internal security concerns for India as a nation.
To the best of my knowledge Kapil Sibal is a senior Supreme Court lawyer and considered as the most knowledgeable practitioners of Law in India. And how come he did not take into account the amendment to Section 66 (A) of the IT Act 2000.
It provides for a very wide offence pertaining to electronic/online defamation -- an offence punishable with three years imprisonment and fine.
Section 67 of the IT Act makes the publishing and transmission of obscene content a criminal offence. And there are internal inspection mechanisms set up by Google, Facebook and others. If government thinks people are eligible for punishment, enact this law and file cases!
Larger and more important point is we are not living in Iran, China or any dictatorship. We are in India. We have certain duties and rights given by Constitution of India.
Recent episode of Shri Kapil Sibal and his extraordinary avowal and blatant wish to 'actually censor and effectively control' the content on the World Wide Web was an indication of how the tenure of this UPA is deteriorated.
I mean it is absolutely strange and silly to even imagine, a top level babu sits in Sanchar Bhavan in Dilli and sifts through the uncountable and varied content on the web!
And a separate entity 'Department of Internet Scrutiny' is carved out to decide what content is appropriate and what is out of place. This department would invariably report to Minister for IT and Telecom! By the way there are almost 100 million net users in India as per Internet World Stats reports and the number is continuously growing.
And who knows I 'will not be able to opine freely on this blog' as per the Constitution if this proposal of Mr. Sibal really happens. Even if that same Constitution gives me freedom of speech! Mind it - this is one of the fundamental rights.
What is really baffling is the fact that Mr. Sibal chose to speak about this restriction and put forth the scenario of concern about the content that can jeopardize communal harmony. However it was too obvious that he was more anxious about the content against the Madam G and PM-ji. One can understand if there are external/ internal security concerns for India as a nation.
To the best of my knowledge Kapil Sibal is a senior Supreme Court lawyer and considered as the most knowledgeable practitioners of Law in India. And how come he did not take into account the amendment to Section 66 (A) of the IT Act 2000.
It provides for a very wide offence pertaining to electronic/online defamation -- an offence punishable with three years imprisonment and fine.
Section 67 of the IT Act makes the publishing and transmission of obscene content a criminal offence. And there are internal inspection mechanisms set up by Google, Facebook and others. If government thinks people are eligible for punishment, enact this law and file cases!
Larger and more important point is we are not living in Iran, China or any dictatorship. We are in India. We have certain duties and rights given by Constitution of India.
