A few weeks back, the whole Indian netspace was shaken by the Indian government's instructive to block certain sites which were allegedly propagating ideas contrary to the country's security. However most of the Indian ISPs ended up blocking entire domains which included well-known blogging services like Blogspot and TypePad.

Much has already been said about the stupidity of the ban, notable among them being Kiran Jonnalagadda. I do not think I can throw any more light on this issue than has already been thrown, but I would like to publish the transcript of an interesting and provoking discussion which I had with Richard M. Stallman about this particular issue. The discussion originated when I came to know about the 'blog ban' issue one evening on IRC during my stay in HBCSE in Mumbai. I was stunned and shocked. Being a volunteer maintainer of RMS' home page, I am used to reading a number of articles championing the cause for social freedom and the respect any government owes to the people it governs. RMS ultimately wrote a number of political notes about the 'blog ban' issue on his own site.

/me to RMS:

It was recently brought to my notice that the Indian government has
instructed ISPs to block certain sites like Blogspot, TypePad,
Geocities, etc.. There was a TV news bulletin which covered this (I
did not see it), and a daily Indian Express is covering the issue.
Currently one may look at http://jace.seacrow.com/, http://www.withinandwithout.com/?p=854, http://www.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia/2006/07/what-is-up-with-blogspot-blogger-sites.html
Since you have been championing the cause for social freedom in
general, and software freedom in particular I think this would be an
apt thing for you to make a comment about (maybe on stallman.org).

In the meanwhile as an Indian I will try to pursue the matter at my own level.

RMS to /me

Thanks.

Doesn't India recognize human rights that would prohibit this
censorship?

/me to RMS

Yes it does. For example there is a clause which says that every
citizen has the right to information, and if a citizen sends a 'Right
To Information' (ie. RTI) to the government then it has to reply
within a deadline. I think it is 20 or 30 days.

It seems that the government intended to block only a few blogs which
it felt was dangerous to the countries security or something, but the
over zealous ISPs ended up blocking everything.

/me to RMS

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/8719.html
Indian Express is an Indian daily, and it made a reasonably good
coverage of the issue.

RMS to /me

Blocking "a few blogs" is still censorship.

RMS to /me

> http://www.indianexpress.com/story/8719.html
I will send mail to fetch that page. Thanks.

/me to RMS

>> It seems that the government intended to block only a few blogs which
>> it felt was dangerous to the countries security or something, but the
>> over zealous ISPs ended up blocking everything.

> Blocking "a few blogs" is still censorship.

Thats true but there was a serial bomb blast in Mumbai few days back,
preceded by grenade attacks in Srinagar that very day. It seems that
the governments action was meant to clamp down on terror activities,
that might be perpetrated through the Internet.

However I am not too sure whether this is true or not.

RMS to /me

It is still inexcusable. Censorship of political views is a bigger
threat to freedom than bombs.

/me to RMS

On 20/07/06, Richard Stallman wrote:
> > Blocking "a few blogs" is still censorship.
>
> Thats true but there was a serial bomb blast in Mumbai few days back,
>
> That changes nothing about human rights.
>
> It seems that
> the governments action was meant to clamp down on terror activities,
> that might be perpetrated through the Internet.
>
> It is still inexcusable. Censorship of political views is a bigger
> threat to freedom than bombs.

I appreciate your views. The media is slowly waking up to this issue.
Lets see what we can do as citizens of the biggest democracy in the
world.

By the way can I post excerpts from this mail conversation on my blog?

RMS to /me

You are welcome to do so, if the government of India will let you ;-).

Finally a hearty thanks to RMS for allowing me to publish this conversation.