The ghastly ghost of Nehru’s unsullied love for Stalinist Russia continues to haunt us. His intolerance to criticism spilled over to the next generation culminating in the Emergency. While Nehru at least concealed his intolerance under a carefully-cultivated outward sophistication, his daughter was quite frank in showing her sense of entitlement to rule India.

The Congress footsoldiers were quick to pick that up. The servility they displayed during Indira Gandhi’s time set a precedent that continues to date. For most of the post-Rajiv Gandhi era, the Congress party’s fortunes looked like it was headed for bankruptcy. And despite its familiar noises, people had stopped taking it seriously.

Its fortunes are pointing heavenwards again. And it’s now trying to resuscitate its inheritance of intolerance for all norms of healthy opposition, dissent and basic norms of democratic decency. The latest Exhibit :

Barely four months after dropping its proposal of forcing TV channels to show only an “authorized” feed during security emergencies, the government is now seeking to censor news portals and other websites, that too even at normal times.

One glaring infirmity in the draft rules prepared by the department of information technology is that they make no stipulation for a prior hearing to the affected website. This is despite the fact that the web host who does not comply with the direction to remove the offending information is liable to be punished with imprisonment up to seven years. … Under the draft rules framed under section 69A of the IT amendment Act, every state or Central government department will be empowered to decide whether a certain news item, article, blog or advertisement relating to its jurisdiction is safe to remain on the Net.

Once somebody sends a “complaint” against any information displayed on the Net, the department concerned will take a call on whether the matter in question affects any of the six concerns mentioned in section 69A: interest of sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order or incitement to commit any cognizable offence relating to the other five reasons.

Stealth Stalinism in plain language.

Woe must’ve befallen me that this damn piece of news was reported on my birthday [I'm not fishing for anything okay? ].

This is eerily reminiscient of the days of a Indira Gandhi-appointed “news censor.” But Congress 2009 is a completely different beast. It looks like it has partially learned some lessons from its fall from the heady days where it commanded upward of two-thirds majority. This time around, notice how this proposal was passed surreptitiously? Not too many people–even the media–have written about/reported it. It’s understandable that the secular media is overworked from spinning tales of the triumph of secularism over dangerous communalism etc. Which perfectly suits–and I suspect is also part of–the Congress strategy. Recall in my previous I’d complimented the Congress party for quashing its political opponents once it’s in power. If you notice, it put a rubber-stamp non-entity in the Rashtrapati Bhavan and winked at the media. The media promptly painted her as a symbol of female empowerment, etc. Then it put its reliable Emergency Lieutenant, Navin Chawla in the Election office. All along it doled out goodies to the media, kept it well-oiled and now that it is unchallenged in sheer numbers, it has begun to slowly slip such Stalinist envelopes under the door.

However, unlike the days of print media, trying to censor online media is really, a double-edged sword: one, you cannot really “censor” the Internet. Two, when this comes up for more detailed discussion, it will generate widespread outrage across the world. Recall the public outcry when it blocked Blogspot and several other “offensive” sites? We’ll see how that’ll unfold but this disgraceful move underscores what I observed earlier: the Congress party by nature suffers from insufferable megalomania and an acute intolerance for democratic norms.

PS: Read this blog while it lasts: it maybe banned.

Tags: 15th Lok Sabha, Blogs, Censorship in Democracy, Congress, Congress Master Censor, Congress wants to Censor News Portals, Dynastic Rule, Elections 2009, India, Indian Elections 2009, Indian Politics, Indian Polls 2009, Intolerance, Media Watch, Politics, UPA