"Jai Hind" instead of Porn

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Censored: Babus get 'Jai Hind' when they log into pornographic sites

 

New Delhi, Jan. 10: "www......com. This page is not worth viewing.

Let us do something better. Jai hind."

This is the message that will greet many government employees if they

try to log on to a pornographic site on the Internet. The message

started appearing a couple of days ago at some of the ministries of

the Union government. The babus are more surprised than shocked.

 

In a particular ministry, the officials called up colleagues in

astonishment as they discovered that their Internet had been

censored. Calls are being made between ministries to find out about

the latest discovery on the Internet.

 

Nobody seems to know who did it, or why. Fingers have been pointed at

the National Informatics Centre, the Internet service provider to

most government ministries.

 

An NIC official handling the computer system of a particular ministry

was aghast. He said there have been no written orders to block

certain sites. "It seems that certain sites have been blocked or

certain words have been filtered to block the sites," he said.

 

The expert felt blocking pornographic sites by filtering certain

words may prove to be a futile exercise. "Somebody is wasting his

time," he said, adding that many sites with "innocuous" names could

also contain pornographic material.

 

The official said there was no need for this kind of thing. "Maybe

somebody was trying to experiment or something," he said.

 

Senior NIC officials, including director-general N Vijayaditya, were

not available for comment. Deputy director-general Y K Sharma said

the matter was not under him. It could not be ascertained whether NIC

has taken a policy decision to block the site or whether something

else is the matter.

 

But officials are also angry. Many of them said it is the worst case

of Internet censorship. "There is software to block pornographic

sites but the decision should be left to the individual," said one

official.

 

Another said, "The government should concentrate on blocking those

sites which carry anti-India propaganda and not these, which are

insignificant." The officials said policing the Internet was not in

the interests of the nation. "It is not a question of pornography.

But censorship is bad," said an official.

 

Meanwhile, Indian authorities and computer specialists have traced

many cases of hacking of Indian Internet sites to Pakistan. "Quite a

few of hackers can be traced to ISPs (Internet service providers) in

Pakistan," CBI director R K Raghavan said.

 

He said it would be difficult to nail hackers who broke into computer

systems without help from Pakistani law enforcers.

 

"One wonders what kind of cooperation we will get..." he said, but

did not elaborate. Indian industry officials say hackers broke into

at least 635 Indian Internet sites last year.

 

"GForce," a group of anonymous hackers whose members write slogans

critical of India and its claim over Kashmir, have owned up to

several instances of hacking of Indian sites run by the Indian

government, private companies or scientific organisations.

 

Dewang Mehta, president of India' National Association of Software

and Service Companies, said the lack of uniform laws against

cybercrimes involving abuse of computer systems made prosecution of

cross-border hackers difficult.

 

Last year, India passed a landmark digital law that makes hacking,

spreading of viruses and illegal financial transactions over the

Internet punishable. It became the 12th member in a small club of

nations with digital laws