mypajama.com is all about storytelling. Stories and essays are published at an alarmingly infrequent rate. Subscribe with RSS or via email.

If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all. –Noam Chomsky

When I was in the ninth standard, I created a superhero called Destroyer of Troubles and affectionately called him DoT. The details are fuzzy now but I really liked him. I dropped the idea following the events of this past week. Turns out there already is a DoT. And mighty particular about trouble too. DoT wants no trouble. DoT wouldn’t even consider the possibility of it. Trouble is, DoT also defines trouble. And that’s where the trouble starts.

The ‘blog ban’ as it is being called now, wasn’t really about blogs. DoT had commanded the ISPs to block websites that it deemed a threat to the country’s communal fabric. There were 22 (that many!) of them. Because someone at the ISP level still needed a primer on the difference between a domain and a sub-domain, much of the Indian blogosphere remained inaccessible through browsers for days at length. All is well now. It was a mistake. And they rectified it just to shut us all up. How sweet!

Well, they have their peace. What we don’t have is an answer. According to what we were told, shutting people up is no part of democracy (we ARE a democracy, right?). Ideally, a free flow of ideas is what characterises it. It is understandable if you nab someone for libel or such stuff. But even then, I would expect to hear about it. Had it not been for the blessed glitch on the ISP side, many of us would never even had heard of those said improper sites.

As long as they are not breaking any law they can’t be blocked. Whatever happened to the old fashioned ways of serving legal notices, warnings and the like? Even if it is a fanatic/ lunatic voice on the web that you are worried about, why keep it from me? I deserve a good laugh as much as you deserve a copy of ‘A Brief History of the Future‘.

Sticks and stones… Sticks and stones.

I appreciate noble intentions. I understand mistakes are natural. The bug here is in the approach. And by the way, the things you truly ought to review for propriety, far outnumber 22. What the ban acheived was a load of indignant right-thinking individuals (such as I).

A trigger-happy attitude may stir things up, but in the long run is as ineffectual as inaction.

But then again, I am not the one to decide. This is a vast place we are talking about. The peace of mind you seek lies not in the ban but in vision and a bit of common sense.

Posted on Sunday, July 23rd, 2006 at 12:33 pm and filed under blogging, news.

Do you believe in destiny? Click here to read a random post.

I publish new stories and essays with alarming infrequency. To stay updated, subscribe to the RSS feed or get email updates.