By Nawaz Yasin Islam
No new messages Estranged is what would rightly describe the situation of
being unable to rotate those fingertips voraciously and text and tweet and share the craziest of ‘pop up’ happenings in life.
The recent ‘hugely appreciated’ centre’s ban on the circulation of bulk SMSes surely plummeted the ‘hi and happening’ generation back to an age of using pigeons for passing the word! Well, benefits apart, tragedy has befallen this era.
Thanks to the little housewife gossips of some degenerated soul, the entire nation was sent to a frenzy and the famous fact just came to light once again, ‘A country with a billion brains run by a few’.
All it took for scores of people to be sent scattering like ants in an anthill sprayed with pesticide was an SMS pack and a mobile and a top up to keep the same SMS pack valid!
A simple forward that threatened an entire community of being attacked on Eid day to avenge the killing of Muslims by tribals in Assam was taken more seriously than the same idiotic SMSes which force people to forward a good wish SMS to 20 people failing which his/her mother would be given a one-way ticket to heaven.
What can one say? It was the scare of mass destruction weapons that made the Bush administration rip apart a nation like a little sofa set even as they failed to find any. In our case, it was the famed ‘Indian rumor’ that needs no second verification and led to people vacating a city with urgency (I would have done it too!)
A mass exodus, as the word being flashed everywhere is indeed a calamity of sorts.
We never analyzed if it was an effort on the part of Railway and Aviation authorities to increase the sale of tickets or a mere ‘dorm dare’ among some roommates of a dingy hostel.
It would be best to leave such matters for the analysis by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Research and Analysis Wing but an early interpretation would receive tremendous appreciation.
Rumours were always welcomed in our society owing to the benefits it brought along with it. But little did we realize that the outcome of this joke at the ‘national level’ would invite a whip at similar ‘national levels’!
The darkest day in the history of being a tech savvy person was August 17 when the Telecom Ministry, on the direction of the Home Ministry, imposed a 15 day ban on the circulation of bulk SMSes and pours the added salt of restricting internet usage via mobile phones to 20KB.
Can one imagine the plight faced by the billion citizens who were not contributors to this joke?
5 SMSes on a daily basis was a ‘killer’ for people whose lifeline was the frequent tapping and punching of characters we call ‘short messaging’. Many blooming relationships faced the threat of being over! For the miser community of “Call me, no balance”, the ban was a nightmare.
The angered opposition regarding freedom of expression being curtailed is sadly true. The ban has ensured that the daily dose of “OMG and LOL” and of course the “So cute and soooo sweet” comes to an immediate end.
Mornings are quieter and nights are sober with no messages every second minute wishing “Sweet dreams and hugs and kisses”. Well miseries apart, the ones who bought SMS packs incurred similar losses.
From one perspective, this was a planned move but at the same time, the short-sightedness of our brilliant minds was exposed.
Imposing a blanket ban on the circulation of messages and surfing internet with strict limitations was poorly thought of for simple reasons…
1. Legitimate bulk SMS like information on booking a flight or ticket should have been allowed. It so seems that we don’t have the right to know anything considering our misbehavior. Well the TRAI could have been smarter by identifying the difference between transactional and person to person messaging.
2. The basic human behavior has been vehemently ignored. In this part of the world, 80% of rumors are like ‘mouth to mouth disease’. You really don’t need telecommunication to spread exaggerated tales when you have slippery lips to suffice.
3. The SMS ban failed to consider the smarter choice of using data based messaging applications like Whatsapp and BBM (Blackberry messenger). They possibly thought that users of such high end technology would be equally civilized!
Imposing a ‘smart ban’ could have spared us the miseries associated with treating the viral messaging fever.
Using content filtering tools, the government could have proved its magnificence and at the same time earn applauds of the SMS dependent community.
Information vacuum ultimately increases anxiety and drives people to seek solace in already unreliable rumors.
Though there were severe criticisms from all corners, yet the ‘not-so-ignorant’ minds appreciated the Centre’s efforts knowing that India’s constitution allows some restrictions on freedom of speech, listing ‘sovereignty and integrity’ of India as well as maintaining ‘public order, decency or morality’ as the main reasons.
Critics say the ambiguity of these restrictions has made it easy for the government to censor or block online content.
Content that is subjectively categorized as ‘ethnically objectionable’, ‘grossly harmful’, ‘defamatory’, or ‘blasphemous’ must be censored or blocked by Indian Service providers within 36 hours of their publishing, according to the latest rules instituted in 2011.
Well, jailing an entire nation to prevent the 0.1% mischief makers seems like the next step of our decision makers considering that all SMSes were banned for the similar ‘microscopic ratio’ of rumors.
(The author can be contacted at [email protected] and old issues can be tracked at thehereticcorner.wordpress.com)