We Shall Overcome (Maybe) . . .

According to this rediff report, Amitabh Singhal, a spokesperson of the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), has said that the blockade on blogs by various Indian ISPs will be lifted in another 48 hours.

Apparently the ISPs would have to tweak their Domain Name Servers (DNS) in a way that they block only the sub-domains DoT wants blocked while allowing other blogs to be accessed as before.

I hope this news is true.

For the moment I am willing to accept this partial upliftment of the ban. Ideally I would like all the sites to be free of censorship -- even the ones that the Government feels are inflammatory and against our nation's interests. Blocking these sites will not help much. If these sites are accessible, at least bloggers and readers can counter the "dangerous" rhetoric on these sites. For such arguments have to be countered by engaging these people in a debate and countering their ideas with logic, rationality, and understanding. Blocking these sites won't make the problem go away. Rather we the risk of festering a wound instead of trying to cure it.

And face it: By blocking websites, by refusing to acknowledge the "other," by censoring thoughts and words that are unpalatable to us, aren't we at risk of falling a victim to the same separatist hatred that some of these sited are advocating?

So people, 48 hours it is. Let's wait and watch.

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My earlier posts on this issue:
Blogs Blocked (workaround link) and What's Missing From our Lives (workaround link).

What's Missing From our Lives

Just came across this on The Hindustan Times:

"Officials" have this to say in defense of the decision to block blogs:

We would like those people to come forward who access these (the 12) radical websites and please explain to us what are they missing from their lives in the absence of these sites.

What am I missing? How about:

• I am missing reading a number of blogs that have some of the best writing that I have ever come across. Or is it that the government expects us to read only their circulars?
• I am missing the freedom to go online and read whatever catches my fancy -- and yes even if it is something radical, anti-India if the argument has been logically and excellently made. And no, that doesn't mean that I get influenced by these "radical sites."
• And since I spend a substantial bit of my day on reading blogs, my life is suddenly bereft and empty (well actually nothing that dramatic, but it is irritating to workaround the ban to access the blogs I want to read).
• I am missing the feeling of living in a democratic nation. I know the government controls a lot of my life in ways that I probably can't even fathom but this is too intrusive. I hate this big brother approach. I hate to grouped along with nations (Pakistan, China, the Middle-East nations, Ethiopia . . .) that censor the Internet.

That quote just confirms what I said earlier. Whoever thought of this and authorized the ban is so incompetent, clueless, stupid, dim-witted, and idiotic that the mind boggles.

And I hate to have a government of dolts.

update:
The Protests By Bloggers page on the public wiki is now available here.
Any lessons to be learnt from the ban on blogger? Quite a few.

Blogs Blocked

At least the blogspot ones are. And the ones hosted on geocities and typepad as well. Soon it might be the turn of other blog hosts too. And this evidently is on the orders of the Government of India. The gag has been put in place because apparently, terrorists are now using blogs to communicate.

When I received an email from Mridula, I thought that it was just a temporary ISP glitch. (Ban in India? For us Indians these sort of things happen only in Pakistan or China, but a gag on the Freedom of Speech in India -- never.) Moreover, whoever I contacted confirmed that blogs were accessible. However it looks like some ISP's were just slow in implementing the gag order. I came online a while ago to catch up on my blog reading, to find that not a single blogspot blog is accessible through my Sify broadband connection.

I would like to know which incompetent, clueless, overbearing fool ordered this gag. Doesn't the government have anything better to do?

And it is all so irritating, frustrating, and pathetic.

I can access blogger. Which means that I can log into my blog account, write a post, edit it, if I feel like it -- color the text, change the font style, wonder if the government doesn't have any serious "governing" to do, and while I am it -- call the government overbearing, foolish, clueless, incompetent (might as well add stupid, dim-witted, and idiotic to the list), and then publish it.

But I can't read my own post on my blog without resorting to what seems like underground resistance.

Bloggers have already banded together: there's a bloggers' collective on Google groups. A wiki: Bloggers Against Censorship has come up that lists the ISP's that have blocked blogspot and typepad. A page very helpfully lists various workarounds so that people can still access blogs. And of course a page that lists bloggers who are at the picket line voicing their protest.

If you are a blogger please write a post and join the protest. And if you are not a blogger, join the protests too -- email your friends, talk to your neighbor -- spread the word. Stop this policing now.

Or before you realize it we'll be back to typing letters in triplicate because some idiot in the government might decide email too needs blocking.

And it would mean that for once the terrorists have won. We can't allow that to happen, can we?

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Here's a quick list of workarounds:

Use a feed reader -- I use Sage which comes as an extension for Firefox browser. But I guess any feed reader (Bloglines, Google Reader) will work as well.

Use http://www.pkblogs.com/ -- this is a Pakistani website that came up when the Pakistan Government had blocked blogspot. This works fine but is a bit on the slower side.

Use http://www.shysurfer.com/ -- allows anonymous browsing and is quite fast.

The Brute State

Anita from Aniamit, in this post writes, about Mandala -- a basti in Deonar that was unfairly demolished without providing adequate notice to the slum-dwellers. A few days back, the police put up a notice asking the slum dwellers to vacate the basti within 12 hours. The minimum time mandated by law is 24 hours (I feel that's inadequate too). The slum dwellers gathered to protest and when the slum was set on fire. A lathi-charge followed.

Most of these slum dwellers are people with proof of residence till 2000. They have the right to be there.

It is not that I am a big fan of the slum cause. A slum is usually an encroachment (probably always) and yes, slums are an eyesore. But having said that, people live in slums out of necessity and not out of choice (and this slum is right next to the Deonar dumping grounds). Burning bastis and lathi-charging people is not the way the state should go about cleaning slums. And if the slum dwellers have proof of residence till 2000 and are legit, there's no way that the state can walk in one day and wipe out their homes. Rehab and relocation have to be provided -- the state simply cannot abdicate its responsibility in this case.

There are probably quite a few more dimensions and angles to this issue that I don't know about or will never understand. But I do feel that prima facie the state has committed a grave injustice and has been very unfair to the residents of Mandala.

The Narmada Nav Nirman Abhiyan is coordinating relief work for the slum dwellers. Donations in cash and kind for the Mandala residents can be sent to: Narmada Nav Nirman Abhiyan, Pervin Jehangir261, Jupiter Apts, 41, New Cuffe Parade, Bombay - 5.

Read Anita's post on the subject here: A city of many realities.

Please help spread the word.