Entries for July 23, 2006
Being misrepresented
A certain Mr Sunil Shibad is currently going around claiming that I mocked the Mumbai train blasts. Sunil is justifiably upset about recent events related to Internet censorship, but chose to hold responsible Mr N R Narayana Murthy of Infosys, then went on to lampoon, progressively, Mr Murthy, NASSCOM, the IT industry, and all “cyber coolies”. He topped off by stating that anyone who was not in Mumbai during the train blasts shouldn’t be speaking about the blog ban — which was the topic until he diverted from it. Don’t believe me? Read his own words.
When I (sarcastically) pointed out that he was abusing the memory of a terrible event for his own selfish ends, he turned it around to claim I was mocking the blasts. Who’s being more offensive? Judge for yourself.
Update: It appears Mr Sunil Shibad is of a far deeper personality than I had accounted for. The publications he set on my case were all fake.
The long dawn of Indian internet activism
And so a week has passed. We kicked up a ruckus, got mainstream media to back our case, appealed on television, made various government babus look like idiots, rattled their departments, extracted their precious document, made it public, set them off on a blame game, and finally, got the ISPs to restore access to our blogs.
What a week for activism! Who knew bloggers had so much power? And we won, right?
A new week dawns. After days of frenzy like an all-night festival, the blockade has been ordered lifted. Connectivity is flickering on across the country. The activists are packing up from their campaign of words, heading back to their regular lives. Tired but happy faces. The chill is thinning. Sunshine, glorious sunshine.
For those of us still standing, we can’t help but wonder. Where have the cheerleaders gone? Is this all they cared for? Their own little selves? The block may be lifted, but the ban is firmly in place. The babus successfully evaded having to explain themselves. They rose in mock anger, threatened ISPs for the mess, then excused themselves because the order after all came from another department.
We’re enraged. We feel violated. Who is this government that claims to represent and protect us, but thinks nothing of shafting us when they please? That holds us in contempt for seeking to understand why?
Why should we let you get away with this? On what basis did you conjure up that list? We looked at the sites you hid from us. We laughed at some, scratched our heads in puzzlement at others. What was so repulsive about them? The people who ran those sites came to talk to us. They were civil. They were puzzled too. We listened as they explained what they understood.
We hear of little birdies atwitter. This ban is just a smokescreen for a sinister operation, they tweet. An operation orchestrated by the government to nab terrorists! Haha, we wink. Looking stupid? Fret not! Apply polish In the Interest of National Security! So clever. So tired. The polish is peeling even as it is applied.
We may not all be standing, but we’re not all gone. You have taken comfort often in the knowledge that public memory is short, that people will move on and forget this ever happened. We won’t. Not all of us, at least. We’re watching you. We have friends. We have the tools to make you answerable. We know how to use them now, and use them we will.
You have a choice. Become accountable, or compel us to embarrass you. You don’t understand the net. You don’t understand the nature of what it is that you seek to regulate. There are billions of pages out there, and growing fast. The worst fate a page can receive is to be obscure. Blocking them is impossible. Circumventing blockades is in the nature of the medium. By seeking a ban, you brought them attention. That is counterintuitive, but that is how it works.
We can help you understand all this, but first you have to learn to be accountable. Or we’ll force it on you. Are you willing to talk?
