Harmless banning at Twisted DNA

Harmless banning

Published July 23rd, 2006

By now I am sure everybody knows the story of Indian government banning a few websites on the grounds of bad graphics, annoying animated GIFs and unbalanced HTML tags. (After visiting the sites I couldn’t think of any other reason).

Apparently some bozo in Indian government defended the decision to block (via aditi). Hindustan times reports:

Officials defended the decision saying, “We would like those people to come forward who access these (the 12) radical websites and please explain to us what are they missing from their lives in the absence of these sites.”

The following are the statements I hope I won’t hear from the Indian government in the future:

“Yes, we shot all the beggars on the streets. Please explain to us what you miss in their absence”
“We understand that by lifting all environmental restrictions on all factories owned by ministers, we are posing a threat to the environment. But you won’t feel these effects in your life time. So we like people to explain why they are concerned.”
“We are banning newspapers from publishing any items of politicians or government officials shooting themselves in the foot.”
“Yes, we made it official that the cops can beat up any suspected criminal at will. If you are not a criminal, why are you worried?”
“We will shoot anybody who compares India to communist countries”
“We are banning any scenes in movies that show two flowers touching head on. We realized that movies are using such scenes to represent inappropriate contact between a male and female. Please tell us how your movie-going experience will be dilated in their absence”
“We banned extra marital affairs. We asked people who miss such affairs to come forward and explain to us why. Not one person stepped forward so far.
“Yes, according to the new law, people on life-support systems in government hospitals must sign a consent form. We issued an emergency order to cut oxygen supply to all such patients immediately. We will circulate the form next week. So what’s your problem?”

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15 Responses to “Harmless banning”

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1 Nachi Jul 23rd, 2006 at 2:46 am

“As per the new law, anyone complaining about the problems/issues that they have with the Govt will be shot.”

Now WHO has a problem??
2 Nachi Jul 23rd, 2006 at 2:50 am

and yeah, just blog-rolled you!!
3 Prasad Jul 23rd, 2006 at 12:46 pm

:) Govt in India (all forms, state or federal) is the most draconian of all, especially because justice is served very very delayed and cold to common man.

Nice post up again.

cheers
-P
4 Anu Jul 23rd, 2006 at 8:06 pm

“We have information that the bombers used something called ‘E-Mail’ to communicate.
Effective today, this has been banned in the country. Anyone, using this as means of correspondance, are to come forward and divulge why they cannot use snail-mail or pigeons and how the absence of E-mail affects their lives.”
5 Ekta Jul 23rd, 2006 at 9:29 pm

hahah!
This is what they call is the limit of stupidity!!!
Its funny how they actually expect us to buy such logic!!
6 Twisted DNA Jul 23rd, 2006 at 10:10 pm

nachi: i absolutely don’t have a problem Thanks for the blogroll

prasad: i guess most justice is served posthumously

anu: LOL

ekta: when limit stupidity tends to infinity, common sense tends to zero.
7 How do we know Jul 23rd, 2006 at 10:36 pm

Hmm… we hereby forbid you to use intelligence as a weapon against the state.. esp till we can figure out a way to get some for the State of India. OOps… did we mention that we meant intelligence.. as in the brains variety?
8 Anand Jul 23rd, 2006 at 11:02 pm

*We banned extra marital affairs. We asked people who miss such affairs to come forward and explain to us why. Not one person stepped forward so far*
Lol…this is hilarious…guess although its funny its also sad to see what kinda people are “leading” the country!
9 Shreemoyee Jul 24th, 2006 at 1:54 am

Wait. Are you against censorship? Or just this example of bad censorship?
Or do you agree/ disagree that censorship is good when drastic measures are needed? But quite a funny post.
10 H.E.Eigler Jul 24th, 2006 at 12:34 pm

Great post - very thought provoking.
11 Mary Poppins Jul 24th, 2006 at 8:37 pm

Oh my…sound like they are relatives or have some striking resemblance to my Island. Even though it is a “Democracy” , it is hilarious to read the idiotic ideas they come up with, with my tax dollars!

::tsk tsk::thinking my poor daughter::
12 starry nights Jul 25th, 2006 at 7:47 am

Nice post. interesting why they banned those sites.Thanks for stopping by my blog and please do come again.
13 Twisted DNA Jul 25th, 2006 at 8:08 am

how do we know: it looks like our government lacks either kind of intelligence

shreemoyee: I think censorship must be practiced with caution. I am OK with censorship as long as:
1. it is backed up by a law. Not some random idiot in the government deciding to, for example, ban dogs because a dog peed on his foot
2. it’s executed right.
3. done transparently

h.e.eigler: thanks

mary poppins: when it comes to wasting hard earned tax dollars, i dont think any one comes close to Dubya. I feel a pang of pain every time they blow up a million dollar missle! That is the tax dollars I will be paying in my entire life probably… literally blown!

starry nights: thanks. i’ve been following you for a while
14 Keshi Jul 26th, 2006 at 8:33 pm

**”Yes, we shot all the beggars on the streets. Please explain to us what you miss in their absence”

haha good one.

Keshi.
15 Deepa Jul 26th, 2006 at 11:40 pm

u write very well…:-)

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