Today many Indians are openly questioning their country’s commitment to an open and free society.

This week the Indian government, without warning or explanation, ordered the country’s Internet Service Providers to block access to several weblog hosting sites, including Google’s Blogspot, the largest weblog hosting site on the internet. Fortunately, Phalanx readers have been unaffected by this ban.

For the most part, India’s commitment to representative government has been relatively untarnished over the past 50 years, with this latest move that commitment now comes in to question.

According to the Indian government, it has the authority to ban certain sites insofar as they relate to:

· sovereignty or integrity of India
· security of the state
· friendly relations with foreign states public order
· preventing incitement to commissioning of any cognizable offences.

Now where have we heard language like that before?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5194172.stm