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via India to ban ‘offensive’ Internet material.

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday vowed to ban offensive material from the Internet after Facebook, Google and other major firms told the government they were unable to screen content before it was posted.

Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said talks with the Internet giants had failed to come up with a solution following complaints that he had lodged three months ago over “unacceptable” images.

“My aim is that insulting material never gets uploaded,” Sibal told reporters in New Delhi. “We will evolve guidelines and mechanisms to deal with the issue.

“They will have to give us the data, where these images are being uploaded and who is doing it.”

Sibal said the government supported free speech and was against censorship but that some material on the Internet was so offensive that no one would find it acceptable.

He said he had shown some of the worst images to the Internet companies, who had said they could not control distribution.

“Three months back we saw that Google, Yahoo!, Facebook had images which could be an insult to Indians, especially religious-minded people,” Sibal said.

“We told them to find a way that such insulting images are not uploaded. We gave them some time… but there was no response.”

Sibal said the firms had shown that their “intention was not to cooperate”and that they had explained they were only “platforms” on which people could display material.

“I feel that this in principle was not correct but it is very clear that we will not allow such insults to happen. We are thinking and will take the next step,” he said.

“We will not allow our cultural ethos to be hurt.”

Sibal showed some of the offending material to journalists, including fake images of naked politicians and religious figures.

He added that “sometimes when asked for data in respect to terrorists…there is hesitation (by Internet companies) to provide that data.”

Google India confirmed Monday’s meeting with Sibal but made no further comment, while other Internet firms were not immediately available.

The Hindustan Times on Tuesday said the Internet companies had rejected Sibal’s appeal, saying a huge volume of information was uploaded on to the Internet and that they were not responsible for judging its content.

At the meeting, Sibal raised the example of a religious website that turned out to display pornographic images, the newspaper said.

It added that Sibal had earlier complained about a site that attacked Sonia Gandhi, the influential president of the ruling Congress party. He also requested that humans, not technology, screen content before it was posted.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, spokesman for the ruling Congress party, said the government was only acting “in respect of absolutely illegal, defamatory, pornographic or other similar kind of material.”

BlackBerry maker RIM has also been embroiled in a dispute with the Indian government over access to encrypted email and instant message services that New Delhi fears could be used by extremists to plot attacks.

Sibal’s requests for Internet screening quickly attracted a storm of criticism on Twitter, with many users expressing anger over any attempt to restrict usage.

Former foreign minister and PPP dissident Shah Mehmood Qureshi has landed in Imran Khan’s party. But will he prove to be the proverbial jewel in the crown for Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf? He just might, because apart from him the politicians making a beeline for the PTI are not heavyweights.

Most of them either lost or were not awarded their parties’ tickets in the last election (which means their chances of getting a ticket come next election are limited). Whether they can secure a victory in the next election is unclear.

Another interesting trend is that a majority of new entrants to the PTI who would be eying tickets to the national and provincial assemblies have worked under Gen Musharraf’s regime in various capacities.

Sardar Ghulam Abbas who twice served as Chakwal district nazim under Gen Musharraf’s devolution plan has joined the PTI.

Before this, he was vice-president of the PML-Q in Punjab. After the PPP and PML-Q having joined hands at the centre, it appears that Mr Abbas is not hopeful of securing a joint candidature of the two parties, hence his decision to go with the PTI, according to a local journalist. Being a sitting nazim, he couldn’t contest the last general election.

Faiz Tamman, another heavy weight and known turncoat in Chakwal politics, has also joined the PTI. Following a controversy surrounding his BA degree, Mr Tamman resigned last year in July as a PML-N MNA.

In 2002, he had won the National Assembly seat as an independent candidate but later became part of the PML-Q government.

In 2008, he was not given a ticket by the PML-Q, so he went for the PML-N and won against Chaudhry Pervez Elahi. He did apply for a PML-N ticket in by-election but the party refused and preferred Mumtaz Tamman, one of his relatives. Hence the PTI is the right choice for him at the moment.

In Rawalpindi, former district nazim Tariq Kiani has joined the PTI and is proactively working for the party in the region. Mr Kiani claimed that he had chosen the PTI after being disillusioned with the PML-Q and PML-N.

He is right in that the two parties have showed no interest in him. Mr Kiani worked closely with the PML-Q as a nazim. Later, he fell out of favour with PML-Q’s leaders and, as a result, couldn’t win a second term as nazim in 2005.

In the 2008 elections he supported Javed Hashmi of the PML-N in Rawalpindi in hope of some political windfall, but remained out of mainstream politics. Now with the PTI in the field, he hopes to get back into the limelight.

Malik Amin Aslam, who served as minister of state for environment from 2002 to 2007 in the PML-Q government, is another known figure from Taxila who will try his luck with PTI. He lost the 2008 election and has been out of the picture since then.

In the neighbouring Fatehjang, Sardar Mohammad Ali, a former PML-Q MPA, wasn’t awarded ticket either by the PML-Q or PML-N and contested the 2008 election as an independent candidate but lost. He is with the PTI now.

Malik Sohail, who couldn’t win the provincial assembly election on a PML-N ticket, has decided to join the PTI. There are reports that he had lost hopes of securing a ticket in the next election.

A number of out of power heavyweights in Sadiqabad and neighbouring areas have also jumped onto the PTI bandwagon.

They included Sheikh Fayyaz Khan who lost in Khanpur the last time as a PPP candidate. He joined the PTI along with Seth Mohammad Aslam and his son Mohammad Anwar from Rahim Yar Khan —a known Muslim League family in the area.

Zafar Iqbal Warraich, a know turncoat who left the PPP for the PML-Q and remained as minister of state during 2002-07, has also joined the PTI.

Mr Warraich lost in NA-196 to a PPP candidate who is sure to get the ticket this time in case the PPP and PML-Q remain in coalition. Therefore, Mr Warriach has decided to try is luck with the PTI.

Sardar Rafique Haider Khan Leghari, former district nazim of Rahim Yar Khan, along with former union council nazims Sajjad Warraich and Asif Rashid of the PML-Q, and former PML-N MPA Chaudhry Shaukat Daud have joined the PTI.

Of the six National Assembly seats of Rahim Yar Khan, four are held by the PPP and one each by PML-N and PML-F. In next general election, a major share of tickets will go to PPP’s sitting members. Therefore, those associated with the PML-Q are joining the PTI.

Last but not the least, former PML-Q president and Punjab governor Mian Azhar is already in the PTI along with his supporters in Lahore. After having embarrassingly lost the 2002 election as the PML-Q chief, Mr Azhar is looking towards the PTI to help him come out of political wilderness.

Buoyed by huge rallies the party has managed to stage in recently, including the one in Lahore, PTI chief Imran Khan is more than hopeful of sweeping the next election.

But it is too early to predict so because except Mr Qureshi who himself joined the PTI after developing differences with his former party’s chief, President Asif Zardari, no major political figure has come to Mr Khan’s party.

If there were a few resignations by members of parliament to join the PTI, it would be a great achievement and boost for the party, but at the moment only ‘leftovers’ from the mainstream parties are joining Imran Khan.