Blog blockade will be lifted in 48 hours

Blog blockade will be lifted in 48 hours: " Amitabh Singhal, a spokesperson of the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) told this correspondent on Wednesday.

Singhal said representatives of various ISPs met on Wednesday to discuss the issue after the media took it up earlier this week. He acknowledged that some ISPs -- he insisted it wasn't all -- mistook the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) notice and blocked entire blog domains, adding that it was technically feasible to block a sub-domain and leave others still accessible.

HinduUnity.org and HinduHumanRights.org are among 17 sites sought to be blocked, on the grounds that they are spreading Hindu nationalist propaganda. Accessed through an anonymizer, HinduUnity.org was found to have articles against Congress party President Sonia Gandhi and Indian Muslims. It also had a 'hit list' of people it considered anti-Hindu.

Another site on the list is Rahulyadav.com, set up by a US-based person who calls himself a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Dalitstan.org, on the other hand, calls itself a 'human rights organisation working for the upliftment of Dalits.'

None of the sites seem to possess any direct security threat to India, or have any connection with the recent Mumbai blasts. Even more bizarre are the blogs sought to be blocked. 'Princess Kimberley' is a defunct blog with just two postings in 2004 about an American teenager's depressing life. 'Commonfolk Commonsense' is a Chinese language blog, while 'Exposing the Left' is written by someone in Southern Illinois!

DoT has not explained why these sites need to be restricted from viewing by Indians. Amitabh Singhal said the ISPs were not in favour of Internet censorship, but were bound by terms and conditions of the license granted to them by the government.

LIST OF BLOCKED SITES

1. www .hinduunity.org
2. mypetjawa.mu.nu
3. pajamaeditors.blogspot.com
4. exposingtheleft.blogspot.com
5. thepiratescove.us
6. commonfolkcommonsense.blogspo t.com
7. bamapachyderm.com
8. princesskimberley.blogspot.com
9. merrimusings.typepad.com
10. mackers-world.com
11. www.dalistan.org
12. www .hinduhumanrights.org/hindufocus.html
13. www .nndh.com
14. bloodroyaltriped.com
15. imagesearchyahoo.com
16. www .imamali8.com
17. www .rahulyadav.com

-- The reporter blogs at National Highway