In the Hindustan Times, apart from a quote from Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad saying that "We are not a control-freak government and strongly object to the word Talibanisation", there's a quote from an unnamed communications ministry official saying that there could be an ombudsman for the Internet, to "hold discussions with parents’ associations, NGOs, journalists and other stakeholders on the issue". Lets get a few things straight here: 1. This is the same telecom minister, who, as the Chairman of the Cyber Regulatory Advisory Committee, on September 5th 2014, said, when it came to blocking porn, that the "larger issue of respecting cultural values of the country and sentiments of the Indian society need to be considered and all possible ways and means may have to be devised in this context." (here, point number 10). 2. I shouldn't need to remind you that the TRAI consultation paper on Net Neutrality had this to say: "Another major challenge is the wide circulation of obscene or pornographic videos through these apps which is very divisive in a society with strongly divergent views on moral standards and obscenity. Yet another potentially problematic area is that users of the social media websites express opinions freely without the usual social restraint." (page 53, here) Even if this isn't a control-freak government, it is a control-freak country. Read this on Scroll: It is only Thursday and India has already imposed six bans this week 3. The government of India did not have to issue…
