In what appears to be a case of Hinduphobia, a journalist who works with Hindustan Times – which has recently taken upon himself to track hate, except when directed at Hindus – shared an article with a tweet that reeks of severe disrespect for Hindu customs and traditions:
That’s what they learnt from Godse:Saffron camp prepares for weapon worship in Bengal on Bijoya Dasami via @htTweetshttps://t.co/ZbyvpDZ4PP
The journalist just declared that Ayudh Puja, which involves worshiping of weapons as is known as Astra Puja too, is following Godse’s lessons. Perhaps he doesn’t know enough about Hindu customs, but simple Google search or reading an article on Wikipedia would have made him aware of this Hindu festival.
To help others who might be unaware like this journalist (giving him benefit of doubt, or maybe he deliberately linked it to Godse), here are some lines from the Wikipedia article (emphasis added):
“The festival falls on the ninth day or Navami of the bright half of Moon’s cycle of 15 days (as per Almanac) in the month of September/October, and is popularly a part of the Dasara or Navaratri or Durga Puja or Golu festival. On the ninth day of the Dasara festival, weapons and tools are worshipped. In Karnataka, the celebration is for killing of the demon king Mahishasura by goddess Chamundeshwari. After slaying of the demon king, the weapons were kept out for worship. While Navaratri festival is observed all over the country but in South Indian states, where it is widely celebrated as Ayudha Puja, there are slight variations of worship procedure.”
But no. Following this custom is following Godse for the “journalist”. He then even tagged another ‘journalist’, Rana Ayyub, who has also been slammed on social media regularly for spreading lies:
Calling fellow ‘journalist’ to shame those celebrating a festival?
He even tagged Shehzad Poonawalla, best known as brother of brother-in-law of Congress VP Rahul Gandhi’s brother in law, Robert Vadra.
Journalism involves tagging along with politicians?
But again, giving benefit of doubt, perhaps he tagged these people to get them to re-tweet his (Hinduphobic at worst, illiterate at best) tweet:
However, Twitter was quick to point out the implicit prejudice and hate towards Hinduism in his tweet:
Ayudh Puja (Weapon worship) has always been a part of Vijayadashami celebrations. Is idiocy a prerequisite to get a job at HT, @ghoshworld? https://t.co/CesCljzCYD
This is stupidly ridiculous. Don’t personally like RSS but weapon worship is part of Vijaya Dashmi just like beheading a goat is of Bakrid. https://t.co/2Ne42ndcuN
For the benefit of the “journalist”, Vishwakarma Puja is celebrated in September/October every year where people worship the tools they use to work. Lord Vishwakarma is considered the divine architect amongst Hindus. Hope he doesn’t declare it yet another example of following Godse later this year.
In short, Vijaya Dashami, which falls on Dusshera, celebrates victory of good over evil. While Vijaya Dashami celebrates victory of Goddess Durga over demon Mahishasur, Dusshera is celebrated as victory of Lord Ram over demon king Raavan. Symbolic worship of weapons/tools of work is not as outlandish in Hindu festivals as it is made out to be. But that requires a little bit of awareness and more importantly, some tolerance and respect for people’s beliefs.
Oh, and it existed even before “Godse” came into picture.
Last month, 2 members of the UP Legislative Council of the Samajwadi Party had resigned sighting citing growing lack of confidence in the party leadership. Now less than a fortnight later, the party has again been hit by an exodus of a much higher magnitude.
On Wednesday earlier this week, two more MLC’s quit from the party, but appears that this was just lull before the storm as news broke on the very next day, that 26 Muslim leaders from Faizabad had resigned from the party and had sent their resignation letter to party president Akhilesh Yadav.
The reason being given for their behaviour is that they were reportedly angered after being ‘neglected’ by the party.
According to reports, Akhilesh Yadav had organised a big rally at Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh on 9th August. This also included an event for paying tribute to freedom fighter Rajbali Yadav on his death anniversary.
There Akhilesh yadav spoke about the sacrifice of Rajbali Yadav and at the same time started the fight for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections via his desh bachao desh banao rally.
This desh bachao now seems to have turned into Samajwadi party bachao due to the decision of the 26 leaders of SP’s minority wing in Faizabad to quit the party. They were reportedly miffed by the fact that none of Muslim leaders were called on to the stage in order to welcome Akhilesh Yadav.
The disgruntled Muslim leaders then in the presence of Bhadarsa’s Municipal Council Chairman Mohammed Rashid, held a meeting on Thursday and announced their resignation.
Among those resigned include senior leaders like, SP’s state secretary Mohammed Haleem, deputy district president Zakir Hussain, district secretaries Tawil Abbas, Mohammed Aslam, Wasir Haider Guddu, district spokesperson Hasan Iqbal to name a few.
In response to the mass resignation, the party’s former minister Pawan pandey has stated that they would be successful in making peace with the disgruntled leaders.
Earlier this week, Mumbai Mirror broke the story that Yoga guru Baba Ramdev will make his Bollywood debut with the patriotic drama “Yeh Hai India” slated to be released on 18th August. According to the report, he was to feature in a song “saiyaan saiyaan”, written by Tapesh Kumar and sung by Javed Ali.
Another media report said how Baba Ramdev has whole heartedly supported the film since it tries to change the perspective people have about India. In a statement, Baba Ramdev had said he supports the film since it shows how India is no longer a country of snake charmers.
“The country that has a population of millions, a country where Vedas were discovered; few people around the world have a wrong perspective about this country. India is no more (just) a country of snake (charmers), it has advanced,” Ramdev said in a statement.
“India has the capability to lead the entire world. This change in the picture of India has been showcased in the film Yeh Hai India. Hence after a lot of thinking I’ve taken a decision to strongly support this film and I also expect every citizen of India to support such films,” he added.
Soon, media critique turned propaganda website Newslaundry, too, lapped up the story, because of course, a saffron clothed Yoga guru dancing on beats of something called “saiyaan saiyaan” is an amusing sight.
However, all of these articles failed to get one small detail right. Baba Ramdev is not really making a debut and most definitely not dancing on ‘sainyaan saiyaan’. We got our hands on the apology letter [pdf] written by the producers to Baba Ramdev apologising for the wrongly portrayed Baba Ramdev’s support to the film.
Main body of the apology letter
The producers also convey in the letter that they will be taking appropriate legal action against Mumbai Mirror. They even said that neither Baba Ramdev nor any of his products or his company has anything to do with the film “Yeh Hai India”.
Under normal circumstances, journalism is about writing a story on the basis of the information collected or discovered. Not in 2017, though. One Times of India journalist reached out to Twitterati for information, when she already had decided the “peg of the story”.
The ‘journalistic’ tweet that started it all
As it does in such situations, Twitter came together to help her collect ‘data’ for her story.
I was thrown out of my home for millennia because I am Hindu. TOI called it “migration”. https://t.co/LAaPmEc9FB
Clearly, the assumption here was that the journalist was definitely not looking for such stories. They are not the ‘right kind of’ victims.
Furthermore, the question came across as someone already had a story in the draft folder, with a set agenda (click bait, sensationalism) in place, just trying to get one or two sources to pad it up. More so, because this is not the first time such articles have been written. Just Google “rent discrimination India”, hundreds of articles will come up, including at Times of India, say this and this. So if Times of India has already a repository, it is a surprise why was the journalist ‘sourcing’ it from Twitter.
Was the story planned to support the outgoing Vice President’s “insecurity” comment, just to prove a point in follow up articles to cater to a the journalism bias? That’s what many people wondered:
Hamid Ansari throws the Muslim victimhood biscuit & our upright journos rush to grab it first & build a narrative. Cute. https://t.co/EjcdfSJMgC
2006 I was denied house in a society because I was staying alone and used to party. Can I peddle it as denial due 2 religion like others do https://t.co/ghsVUgoufo
Forget renting or buying, even a stay for a few hours is sometimes denied based on religion, but again, perhaps not the kind of victim the journalist was looking for:
People also reminded her not to just trust people based on a few tweets that she may find to her liking. Remember how one story was peddled as “Muslim woman denied flat in Mumbai”. Whereas in reality Misbah was evicted because of discrepancy in documents, and not religion.
The journalist later made her account private so that she is not bombarded with more such information and suggestion. Perhaps, as a journalist, being a little more responsible and less sensationalism enthusiast would be a good idea.
The current turmoil in Darjeeling could have been easily avoided, had the Prime Minister of our nation – Narendra Modi had the fortitude to fulfill the promise his government had made [via BJP election manifesto] to the Gorkhas, Adivasis and Kamtapuris of this region – that of examining the long pending demands of our people.
The chaos that has rippled across the Darjeeling hills, Terai and Dooars could also have been easily avoided had the Government of West Bengal lived up to letter and spirit of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration agreement of 2011, and the Gorkhaland Territorial Act of 2012.
The lack of a strong will on the part of the Central government to confront Mamata head on, the politics of opportunism on the part of BJPs Bengal unit, and TMCs over aggressive policy to root out any and all forms of opposition in the hills is what has lead to the hills, Terai and Dooars coming together once again demanding a separate state – Gorkhaland.
The proposed Gorkhaland state will complete the map of North East
No matter how hard Bengal-based politicians try to find unfounded emotional connect to our region, fact of the matter is that they don’t really care for our people, nor do they care about our traditions, customs, languages, and way of living. They do love the land of which we are a part, but they do not give two hoots for the people who live here.
All of this is made evident in the fact that Mamata who doesn’t even spare half-an-excuse to head to the hills and proclaim “pahar hasche,” conveniently left the country and headed to Amsterdam while three Gorkha youths were killed in cold blood, and numerous others injured in police firing. Would she have had the audacity to leave for another state, let alone another country, had any of the deaths been in Kolkata or nearby areas? Would she have had the nerve to go on a foreign jaunt had her government been responsible for the death of three Kolkata based youths, instead of three youths from the Gorkhaland region?
So far, eight Gorkhaland supporters have been killed in police firing, and over 100 injured, yet there has not been any remorse from any of the Ministers in Bengal government.
The fact that Mamata abandoned the hill people after her police force went berserk, is a testament that much like the left front government earlier, the TMC government today only cares about the resource rich hills, while conveniently uncaring for the hill dwellers; and this is precisely why Gorkhaland state needs to be formed. For, the Gorkhas will continue to be treated as second class citizens in West Bengal.
BJP and Gorkhaland
The Bharatiya Janta Party and the Central Government are also equally to be blamed for what has happened to our Darjeeling region. Despite the entire nation supporting UPA-II, the people from our region bestowed our faith in BJP and elected Mr. Jaswant Singh as the Member of Parliament from our region in 2009. This time around, in 2014, our people voted for Mr. SS Ahluwalia of BJP as our MP.
This faith and trust in BJP emanates from the fact that BJP is a party with a proven track record of supporting smaller states, but at the same time of being a party that has not allowed mere electoral gains to take precedence over the process of nation building.
The BJP in turn has provided hope to the Gorkha people and our aspirations. In 2009, the BJP officially announced that if they came to power, they would form two states Gorkhaland and Telangana. The BJP stand was made further clear, when Sushma Swaraj, the then Leader of BJP in Lok Sabha reiterated that “Gorkhaland is an idea whose time has come…”
In 2014 election rally at Sukna, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asserted “Gorkhaon ka Sapna Mera Sapna….” and provided credence to the dreams and aspirations of the Gorkhas. More importantly, when asked if he had spoken in support of considering the demand for Gorkhaland, he had reiterated to an ABP news reporter “Yes, I have said so… because I feel that if these issues are not taken care of, it will cause deeper hurt… our democracy provides for space to consider all demands and we will do so…”
It is this resolve shown by the succeeding BJP party bosses, that helped consolidate Gorkha votes for BJP. When all of Bengal turned their backs on Modi and BJP, Gorkhas along with the Adivasis, Kamtapuris and Bengalis in Darjeeling, Terai and Dooars openly supported him.
However, of late that unshakable faith and trust on BJP government at the center is wavering. The repeated denial of Gorkha rights, including the promised consideration of a committee to examine the validity of the demand for Gorkhaland is yet to materialize, and Gorkhas are now being pushed to the hilt. I fear that if these trends of blatant discrimination against the Gorkhas continue, then there may come a day when the Gorkhas will even stop listening to the Central government.
Undigital India
Take the case of internet ban for instance. Perhaps it may have been justifiable to ban the social media in the hills for a few days to stop baseless rumors from spreading following the 17th of June incident where three Gorkha youths were killed in police firing, today we are into 50 days without any internet access.
The block has now been extended for another eight days and this is nothing but sheer show of power and harassment of the locals by the administration. The Supreme Court of India has stated in an April 2017 judgment that “access to internet is a fundamental right of every citizen in the country,” while I understand that all fundamental rights do come with its baggage of ‘reasonable restrictions,’ what the administration has done is unreasonable beyond belief.
A cursory glance of states that have completely shut down internet in a region shows that since 2014, only Manipur, Nagaland, Gujarat and Kashmir have shut down internet services completely in a part of the state. Manipur shut down the internet at the height of tribal protests in 2016 for 12 days, Nagaland shut down internet for 20 days following protests by Naga tribal bodies asking for Zeliang government to step down. In 2014, Gujarat government shut down internet for three days in Vadodra town following communal clashes in the city. While in Kashmir, selected social media sites have been shut down for varying number of days. However, the situation in Darjeeling doesn’t resemble the dire circumstances that were prevalent in these states, yet our region has been completely cut off from the online world.
Students who had to fill up their higher education forms, and also forms for employment opportunities online have been prevented from doing so, thanks to the blanket ban on Internet in the region. Local channels have been prevented from reporting news altogether, while Kolkata based news channels are allowed to spew lies regarding the ongoing agitation in the hills. One can imagine the outrage across media had a BJP run state imposed such blanket ban on internet for over 50 days.
Yet, the government of India has remained stoically quiet on the issue, and has not even sought a report from the state government on why such a blanket ban on internet is necessary? Both the central and Bengal BJP leaders have kept quiet over this issue, and not cornered Mamata over her crumbling of the democratic rights of the Gorkhas in the region.
National security issues
It reeks of sheer hypocrisy, that while internet is banned in the hills, there are no such restrictions in the foothills of Darjeeling. Numerous anti-Gorkhaland facebook pages are thriving, and communal messages are being circulated with impunity. The situation in Siliguri is worsening by the day, with anti-nationals in the guise of anti-Gorkhaland protestors attacking Army supply trucks headed for border regions of Sikkim. Yet, such acts of violence have remained unreported in the mainstream media, and also there has been no official condemnation of these acts of targeted vandalism by anti-Nationals, either from TMC government in the state, or from the BJP government in the center, or even the BJP party.
Vehicles from Sikkim – a border region, which has seen heightened incursions from China in recent days, are repeatedly being targeted and vandalized in Siliguri and nearby region. While CPI(M) Mayor Asok Bhattacharjee has spoken out against this anti-National act on the part of TMC cadres, the Government of India and even BJP Bengal has maintained absolute silence.
In 2019 elections, I am sure that this silence will come to haunt BJP.
BJP has to wake up
TMC has played their cards well by evoking the feeling of “Bengali Nationalism” through their mandatory Bengali in three-language policy, as well as their seemingly tough stand on Gorkhas, I am sure will help them gain in the 2019 elections across Bengal.
While BJP, which had gained much ground in the North Bengal region is set to lose all the support due to their ditching the Gorkhas, Adivasis and Kamtapuris in their unfounded hopes of winning seats from south-Bengal in the 2019 elections. I can sense that BJP is well on their way to become the proverbial “dhobi ka kutta….’ who are not in a position to win any seats in South-Bengal, while they will lose the seats they are set to gain in North Bengal by supporting the hopes and aspirations of the Gorkha, Adivasis and Kamtapuris – Gorkhaland.
I do understand political equation, and I know it may not make any sense for BJP to give up the hopes of winning 39 MP seats from rest of Bengal, while they are only set to gain 3 MP seats from the proposed Gorkhaland region, but let me tell the BJP party bosses, these three are seats they are guaranteed to win along with having a BJP led state government if they support a new state of Gorkhaland.
As the old adage goes, a bird in hand is always worth more than two in the bushes, and by ditching the indigenous people of North Bengal in favour of the far-fetched electoral gains in rest of Bengal (which will never materialize) could actually translate to BJP losing grounds everywhere in Bengal, and this is dangerous for our nation. A weakened Gorkha community will allow for anti-India forces, such as ISI sponsored terrorists and illegal Bangladeshi vote bank migrants to gain grounds in the region.
I hope that the Central government will have the foresight to engage the indigenous Gorkhas, Adivasis and Kamtapuris in the region positively, before we stop listening to them altogether.
In his last interview before stepping down as the Vice President of India after 10 years of being in office, Hamid Ansari expressed a “feeling of unease”, especially amongst the Muslims. He even felt that “Idea of India” is now a considerable debate and being challenged frequently, making him uncomfortable.
Coming from someone who held the post of Vice President of world’s largest democracy for 10 years, the comments could not have been ignored.
Twitter users were quick to point it out that Ansari feeling insecure was a bit ‘rich’:
But Ansari talked not just about himself, but about the Muslim community:
Of course. Look at the Muslims of Kerala, West Bengal, Kashmir for starters. They’re so scared that mere existence of Hindus threatens them. https://t.co/1WPYaKeAq2
Meanwhile, someone even pointed out that it is statements like these which create a ‘mahaul’ which make people feel insecure.
Here no Muslims are scared of living in India. When leaders like #HamidAnsari says these statement makes us feel insecure with statement. pic.twitter.com/twyyy0fo9p
But perhaps the best reaction came from someone who is popular on Twitter, but said this off Twitter:
One minute. That is all it takes PM Modi to sum up #HamidAnsari in Rajya Sabha as he retires as VP of India / Chairperson of Rajya Sabha. pic.twitter.com/HfIVaY5FDT
On 8th August, the Shia Wakf Board had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court regarding the Ram Mandir issue in Ayodhya. In that affidavit, the board sought that a Ram Temple be built at the Janmbhoomi area while a Mosque be built in a Muslim dominated area that is at a reasonable distance from Lord Ram’s birth place.
Via the affidavit, the Shia Wakf board also tried to stake claim over the disputed site where a makeshift temple exists today. The reports claimed that the Shia body had decided to challenge the 1946 court order, which had granted the ownership of that piece of land, where earlier Babri Masjid stood, to the Sunni Central Waqf Board. According to the Shia Waqf Board chief Waseem Rizvi, they had lost the case in 1945 due to the sloppy manner in which their then council had dealt with the manner.
The Shia Wakf board challenged the 71 year old order in the Supreme Court the following day. The board has claimed in their petition that the Babri Masjid was built on the disputed piece of land by destroying a temple which stood there — a fact that is denied by Sunni board and some leftist historians.
The board also put forth certain historical claims in order to back their claim over the Masjid. According to the board, the Masjid was largely constructed by Shia Muslims and thus should come under Shia Wakf properties. They also contested the claim that the Masjid was built by Mughal ruler Babar, and pointed out that it was actually constructed by one of his Shia ministers named Abdul Mir Baki, who financed it using his own money.
Babar, who was a Sunni Muslim, had merely ordered the construction of the Mosque and had left the spot after 5-6 days as the construction was going to take longer. The petition also claims that it was Baki who was responsible for scoping out the land and demolishing the temple so as to felicitate the construction of the Mosque.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid case on Friday. This hearing would come seven years after the Allahabad High Court ruling, which had said that Lord Ram was indeed born at the disputed site and that the Hindus had a right to worship there. The court would also rule as to whether Shia Wakf Board can also be admitted as one of the petitioners in the case.
Youth Congress continues to embarrass their parent party and Congress supporters. In May this year, Youth Congress workers had publicly slaughtered a cow in Kerala, after which even Rahul Gandhi had to distance himself from the act.
Now the youth wing of the Congress party has indulged in another act, which should surely embarrass their youth icon Rahul Gandhi, who has always talked about women empowerment and press freedom.
Youth Congress has been accused of hosting a rally with a rowdy crowd that molested a woman journalist.
This shocking incident was revealed when the victim journalist, Aneesha Mathur, tweeted about her harrowing experience at a Youth Congress rally held earlier today:
Mathur, who is currently a senior correspondent with Times Now as per her Twitter bio, further revealed that all this happened when senior Congress leaders like Raj Babbar and Ahmed Patel were present at the rally:
The rally was organised at Jantar Manatar in Delhi and was termed “Bharat Bachao Andolan” (movement to save India). The main aim of the rally was to protest against BJP’s effort to win all Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat and to welcome Ahmed Patel, who could win one of the seats.
Ironically, the issue of women security and safety was also one of the issues raised by Youth Congress:
महिला सुरक्षा के नाम पर सिर्फ और सिर्फ खानापूर्ति चल रही है, हर दिन कहीं न कहीं से महिला अत्याचार की खबर आती रहती है। #भारत_बचाओ_आंदोलन
At the time of writing this report, no senior leader of Congress or Youth Congress had condemned the incident and apologised to Aneesha Mathur.
It should be noted that Congress party is not particularly happy with Times Now and Republic TV news channels. They have banned Republic TV from covering many of the incidents, though such hostility against Times Now was not seen. However, this particular incident appears to be related to the misogynistic mindset of the Youth Congress workers, rather than Congress’ relationship with the media.
The misogynistic mindset of Youth Congress can be gauged from the fact that their current national president himself has made crass misogynistic comments against Smriti Irani earlier:
#SmritiIrani ” क्या है तेरी कहानी ? जो तु बन बैठी इतनी जल्दी #BJP की महारानी , क्या कला दिखाई जो मोदी हुए दिवाने – तु सुनादे तेरी ज़ुबानी। “
— Amarinder Singh Raja (@RajaBrar_INC) May 29, 2015
Update: A police complaint has been filed in the case. Aneesha further revealed that this happened right in front of senior leader Raj Babbar:
TIMES NOW’s Reporter heckled, manhandled at Youth Congress protest rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi; complained filed with police pic.twitter.com/ulQLuOOXZi
Early morning today, a suspicious object was found on the Amritsar bound Akal Takht Express in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.
Amethi (UP): Suspected object found in Amritsar-bound Akal Takhat Express late night, two coach vacated, police, BDS on spot. pic.twitter.com/QfltSl5Lcg
The object turned out to be a low intensity crude bomb. The bomb was allegedly accompanied by a letter vowing to avenge killing of top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Abu Dujana, who was recently killed in an encounter in Jammu & Kashmir.
Amethi: Letter found with the suspected object in Amritsar-bound Akal Takhat Express late night. pic.twitter.com/xq7NhG0QzM
“Hindustan will pay for Dujana’s martyrdom” reads the letter found alongside the explosive. The letter states it is written by Indian Mujahideen.
ADG Railway VK Maurya said that the recovered explosive was not a fully-assembled bomb and had no timer or device. He said it was not in a condition to explode.
“It appears to be some explosive like the ones used in crackers. It is not one of known explosives. Two lighters were also kept there. It appears to be more of an attempt to cause mischief by someone to grab attention. We are conducting investigation and thorough examination is being done,” he further added.
However, with India’s 70th Independence Day just round the corner, the security agencies are not taking it lightly as there have been threats to target the Independence Day celebrations. Recently, two alleged Al Qaeda linked militants, Syed Mohammed Zishan Ali and Raju-ul-Ahmed, were arrested in Delhi.
Few things get people worked up over the Internet as quickly as the word “ban”. In a sensational report, India Today, said that the government probably wants to obfuscate information by blocking Wayback Machine which is hosted at archive.org.
“With the Wayback Machine blocked, Indians will find it difficult to catch liars on the Internet. It may even hit India’s attempt to root out corruption, doublespeak and is likely to make a number of government bodies less accountable to citizens.” India Today claimed.
Pretty soon, Internet freedom warriors were at it, blaming the government of India and called it ‘inexplicable instance of censorship’. Everyone was quick to blame the Government of India for the ban. “Journalist” Mihir Sharma, known for spreading propaganda, even hinted that perhaps orders are carried out on Prime Minister Modi’s insistence:
Known Modi haters and trolls tried to spread this news. One such guy, a person named Sanjay Hegde who is apparently a lawyer, re-tweeted the above. You’d expect better from a lawyer considering the truth is far from what these reports say.
What these reports fail to mention is that archive.org is not blocked on orders of Government of India, but Madras High Court. As it turns out, Prakash Jha Productions and Red Chillies Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. approached the court of Justice Anita Sumanth in an attempt to stop pirated copies of their films Lipstick Under My Burkha and Jab Harry Met Sejal from being viewed online. As per the order, many as 2,650 websites have been blocked as per the Madras High Court order.
Medianama did clarify in a follow up article that archive.org is blocked on behest of Madras High Court after complaint by Bollywood studios, but others have not bothered to. Why let facts come in way of a great outrage material?
By the way, not all ISPs had blocked the archive.org and it is available for many users in India. It is however bizarre that the court included it in the list of websites aiding piracy.
Maybe the confusion was due to the low awareness of the petitioners (film production houses). Archive.org archives media files too, but they are allowed only through proper channels. So if a movie is leaked by uploading its media files somewhere, archive.org will not preserve the media file without taking into consideration the copyright issues.
Essentially, the whole controversy is similar to the porn block order by Supreme Court two years ago, where petitioners had prepared a list of over 800 websites to be blocked and got them blocked.
You can read the Madras High Court order here (hosted at Medianama website):
And for India Today’s kind information, archive.org is also very helpful in catching media lies i.e. lies spread by your community.
We have seen innumerable times how media publishes reports with half-truths or plain lies and later silently changes a few things in their report, once the propaganda has traveled far and wide. It happened just a day back when Indian Express silently added a word “Chinese” to their headline, after being bashed by alert Twitter users. Archive.org is helpful in catching such lies.
