Amit Varma of India Uncut shares an email response from the Deputy Consul General in New York. The email contents prove that the Indian ISP's actually goofed up and the ban on blogs in India may soon be removed.According to the email (complete text below), the Government of India wanted to block only few "hate" blogs but the ISPs went a step further and blocked the entire blogosphere in India.
David Appasamy, who has a copy of the DoT letter, confirms that Blogspot.com and geocities.com were not present in the list of 17 websites that were supposed to be blocked in India. So it is the technically inept India ISPs who should be held responsible as were unable to block individual blogs.
The email says that Department of Telecommunications [in India] have now clarified the issue and the error is being rectified and it is expected that normalcy in respect of blogs will soon be restored. Great News - Blogs may be online in India very soon.
Here's the full email text sent by Mr A.R.Ghanashyam at the Indian Consulate in NYC to a SAJA mailing list that was later forwarded to Amit Varma by Sreenath Sreenivasan:
A two-page write up containing extremely derogatory references to Islam and the holy prophet which had the potential to inflame religious sensitivities in India and create serious law and order problems in the country appeared in a blog facilitated by well known search engines. The matter was immediately taken note of by our CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) and the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) was informed of it. The DOT took up the matter forthwith with the search engines and instructions were also issued to all Internet providers to block the two impertinent pages. Because of a technological error, the Internet providers went beyond what was expected of them which in turn resulted in the unfortunate blocking of all blogs.
Because of a technological error, the Internet providers went beyond what was expected of them which in turn resulted in the unfortunate blocking of all blogs. Department of telecommunications have now clarified the issue and the error is being rectified and it is expected that normalcy in respect of blogs will soon be restored.
This is for your information. A.R. Ghanashyam, Deputy Consul General, New York
Update: Here's a fax copy of the official letter directing ISP's to block websites in India [credit: Peter Griffin]
Update: Shivam Vij confirms on Rediff that the blog blockage will be lifted in the next 48 hours. This news was conveyed to him by Amitabh Singhal, a spokesperson of the Internet Service Providers Association of India.
Update: Kamla Bhatt has done an excellent podcast with Neha and Jace who are really spearheading the Blog Mutiny of 2006. [Download Podcast]
Update: Sepia Mutiny has published the list of blogs that the government was trying to block and their possible content:
- www.hinduunity.org
- mypetjawa.mu.nu [American right-wing blog]
- pajamaeditors.blogspot.com [American right-wing blog]
- exposingtheleft.blogspot.com [American right-wing blog]
- thepiratescove.us [American right-wing blog]
- commonfolkcommonsense.blogspot.com [This is isn't even in English!]
- bamapachyderm.com [American right-wing blog]
- princesskimberley.blogspot.com [Long defunct]
- merrimusings.typepad.com [Defunct American right-wing blog, but now at http://www.merrimusings.mu.nu ]
- mackers-world.com [American right-wing blog]
- www.dalistan.org [They actually mean www.dalitstan.org which is currently down]
- www.hinduhumanrights.org/hindufocus.html
- www.nndh.com [Dead URL]
- bloodroyaltriped.com [Dead URL]
- imagesearchyahoo.com [Dead URL, but it wouldn't be a blog!]
- www.imamali8.com [They probably mean imamali.com but somebody mistyped]
- www.rahulyadav.com [Computer geek at IU Bloomington - not a blog at all - banned merely for his links to the BJP, RSS, etc]
