Anna Hazare, Jan Lokpal bill top status updates in 2011

CHENNAI: Communications minister Kapil Sibal may think content on social networking sites is offensive, but a new study shows that the users are politically engaged people who air views and share news online.

According to a report released by Facebook, Anna Hazare and the Jan Lokpal bill were mentioned the most in status updates in 2011 in India. But Sibal might just dislodge Hazare if he persists with the demand to pre-screen internet content. On Twitter, #IdiotKapilSibal was the trending topic on Tuesday.

The Facebook study shows that social media users in the country prefer to share and discuss political events rather than entertainment reports. "Today's social platforms are allowing people to do something about the things they believe in. The criticism that this is just a modern version of armchair activism, or re-tweet activism, is unfair," said Narendra Nag, general manager, 2020 Social, an online community management firm.

Social networking sites were used as an organizing tool for protests during the Anna Hazare fast in April. Facebook, with over 38 million Indian users-over 3% of the population-is credited with playing a significant role in the 'India Against Corruption' movement. Likewise, Twitter, MySpace and Blackberry Messenger have been key to political movements globally.

"We had the right policy and correct philosophy (Jan Lokpal bill), and the huge number of social media users helped the movement," said Anna Hazare's former blogger and political analyst Raju Parulekar. In future, such channels will play a bigger role in democratic countries like ours, he said.

Shah Rukh Khan's film 'Ra.One' and song 'Chammak Chalo' were the second most-shared topics on status updates followed by Osama bin Laden, Jagjit Singh and Steve Jobs.

Globally, Osama bin Laden's death topped the status trend among a total of 800 million users as of September.

A separate study by Pew Research in June said that Facebook users are politically more active than other social media users. This year, social media has played a key role in international politics. The sites have been used to spread mass anti-government protests in Syria, Libya, and other North African countries.

The London riots in August were planned using social media tools, especially Blackberry Messenger. Later, police cracked down on planned riots with the help of Research In Motion, the makers of Blackberry. In the UK, status messages about the riots were the second most popular, after the Royal Wedding.

"Willingness to express opinions and network with large numbers of people will continue to fuel reform movements and people will thoroughly participate in such events," said Kiruba Shankar, tech expert and CEO of Business Blogging, a social media consultant.

On the move to control the content on the internet, Parulekar said, "I am absolutely against any kind of censorship in media or social media." He said these tools are important for democracy and democratic referendum.

Social media users and analysts suspect that the government does not want another Anna Hazare-type movement, which was powered by social media. "My suspicion is that they want to protect the government, fearing mass movements like the ones in Syria, Libya or other Middle East countries," Shankar said. "The internet is the world's largest democracy and it should not be meddled with."

Five reasons why India can't censor the internet

In just 24 hours, in the Facebook alumni group of St Stephen's College, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal's ratings crashed faster than that of US President Barack Obama or what former telecom minister A. Raja, now in judicial custody over second generation (2G) spectrum case, ever had.

In a survey to pick star alumni for a big debating clash with counterparts from the rival college across the road, Sibal was on the top five a week ago -- among other stellar Stephanians like Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former federal minister Mani Shankar Aiyar or former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor. No longer!

As the #Idiot hash-tag topped Twitter trends, some withdrew their votes for Sibal, and there were posts like "Chuck him across the road" -- a scathing insult, equivalent to the Parsis' excommunication.

Just a preview of the global firestorm over the next two days!

The fire wasn't from anonymous teens. Seasoned analysts blasted Sibal. Investor Mahesh Murthy posted: "Censor this! :) ! Five of the top 10 Twitter trends in India right now are: #IdiotKapilsibal, #KapilSibal, #Censorship, #FreeSpeech and #FreedomOfSpeech."

All this, for just one statement from a politician not unknown for his foot-in-mouth disease? Not quite. For, he has the power to misuse and try to make it happen.

During the Anna Hazare movement, Sibal summoned representatives of the social networks. In a king-and-subjects interaction, he kept them waiting, then kept them standing in his room; gave them a pre-emptive dressing down; and snapped: "I don't want any anti-government stuff on your networks. Fix it." There was no room for discussion.

So here's a five-point Internet 101 for the illustrious Mr. Sibal.

1. The internet cannot be edited: Duh! In an early Dilbert strip, the pointy-haired boss demanded that Dilbert "download" the internet and fax it to him. A decade down, it's not so funny any more.

The internet is not traditional media. India's 1975 emergency and the media clampdown was possible because of the linear, broadcast nature of the old media. New media is distributed. No copy desk or censor board can "fix" it. There is no editor to arrest. And, most content is hosted outside India's jurisdiction.

2. User-generated content cannot be filtered: That would slow down the global internet to a crawl, with posts appearing after days -- even assuming so many "editors" could be hired by, say, a Facebook or a Twitter.

Are phone operators responsible for "content" carried on their networks -- or their CEOs arrested if someone made a terror threat over a phone call? No, the telco is simply asked to help with the investigation -- into who made the call.

Yes, internet content has the permanence and public-impact potential that a phone call does not, but equally, it lends itself brilliantly to self-regulation.

3. Peer review works: Wikipedia is the best example. Who could have imagined that a user-created encyclopedia could be so objective, and comprehensive? Yes, anyone can go in and edit anything (barring entries like "Kapil Sibal", which have been locked due to vandalism!).

If you make an inappropriate change, someone will come in and correct it. And so it is on Facebook or Twitter. Abusive posts will be reported, blocked, and the individuals knocked out of the site.

4. Draconian controls are not necessary: In this age of global cooperation on terror, companies cooperate. A rational request from India to Google or Facebook to bring down offensive content will be heard -- regardless of jurisdiction.

5. Yes, there are precedents for Internet control, but...: Such censorship is in countries India doesn't want to be -- China, Pakistan, Myanmar or Saudi Arabia. Pakistan became a laughing stock when it issued a list of banned words for SMS messages. (That list is now standard reading for anyone wanting a quick lesson in present and future abuses that aren't in any dictionary.)

The big daddy of "regulation" is China, where everything is filtered, and if you break those filters, you are charged with treason. What a role model.

But wait.

Kapil Sibal knows all this, right? So why is this bright star from Harvard Law School and St. Stephen's college now sounding so anachronistic in the internet age? Is it the old "thou shalt display higher loyalty to the royal family than the prince himself" mantra?

If Kapil Sibal is to defend himself against the charge of sycophancy, he is on a weak footing. There were many prior potential triggers for tackling social media, including fanatic religious posts, derogatory comments by Pakistan sympathisers, Anna Hazare, and more. That he finally picked a post that targeted Sonia Gandhi suggests that this was not out of serious, objective concern about India's stability, security or secular fabric.

Censoring social media antisocial

NAGPUR: Social media, the 'virtual' land of the free and home of the brave, is under attack. However, Nagpurians have come out in support of online freedom, trashing communications and IT minister Kapil Sibal's intentions and suggestions.

Sibal had said recently that the modern, powerful online platform, which has played a major role recently across the world in ending tyrant dictatorships, and closer home in forcing the mighty to take notice of various demands, should be monitored to avoid objectionable content. The ambiguity of what would constitute 'objectionable content' is worrying most of the stakeholders.

Citizens in Nagpur came down heavily on Sibal's statements. Considering the role social media played in Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement, many feel the government wants to stop citizens from banding together.

Ajay Sanghi, city coordinator for India Against Corruption ( IAC), says the government is moving towards a repeat of the emergency situation. "They are going after Team Anna and the gloves are off. First, they put restriction on the number of SMS people can send, and now the social media is coming under the radar. The government is targeting our main communication tools, hoping that we will succumb. This is emergency part II," said Sanghi.

MLA Devendra Fadnavis prides himself on being active in the virtual world and said he was appalled by Sibal's statements. "I always thought there was a difference between China and India, but after listening to Sibal I feel we are now moving towards a Made-in-China democracy. If the government is supervising my moves online then they are curbing my freedom of speech guaranteed by the constitution," said Fadnavis.

Youth Against Corruption (YAC), an organization promoted by Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) recently held a three-day protest against corruption in Nagpur. Swapnil Kathale of YAC said, "Social media is the tool we all use to get our message to the public as fast as possible and it helps in making any protest or rally a success. Sibal's remarks smell of a conspiracy to clamp down on any public uprising against their corrupt system."

Adman Sanjay Arora said, "Less than one per cent of India's population uses Facebook and Twitter, and the government wants to clamp down on that as well! Censorship has never worked anywhere in the world and it will boomerang here too. There was a lot of rage today in Twitter as users bashed Sibal on the issue."

Fadnavis feels that social media has in fact brought in a lot of positive changes. "The virtual world is shattering walls of caste, creed and colour as people are interacting more and more," said Fadnavis.

Sanghi said, tongue firmly in cheek, "The things that need monitoring are the mouths of Sibal, Digvijay Singh and Manish Tewari."

Nation could have been spared trauma inflicted by Anna Hazare's agitation: Kapil Sibal

NEW DELHI: HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, a key government negotiator on the Lokpal issue, today said the nation could have been spared the "trauma inflicted by Anna Hazare's agitation" if his team had given up some of its demands earlier.

Sibal was the main negotiator for the government in its talks with the leaders of the anti-corruption movement led by the Gandhian but had to take a back seat following allegations of mishandling of the movement.

"The nation could have been spared the trauma inflicted by the Lokpal agitation had Team Anna given up some of its demands earlier," Sibal said in an interview to Rajya Sabha TV.

Breaking his silence after facing severe criticism for alleged mishandling of the anti-corruption movement, he said "There was no need for any abuse or conflict."

"Team Anna had dropped its demand that judiciary, entire bureaucracy and the conduct of MPs inside the House should come under the proposed Lokpal," Sibal said adding "they also softened the stand that state anti-corruption bodies should be covered under the legislation during the course of the negotiations."

Sibal said from the entire Lokpal episode he had learnt the lesson that he would not become the spokesperson of any group in future.

On the government's stand on the issue, he said it maintained a dignified silence despite being called cheats, liars and betrayers by the Team Anna.

"We never retaliated," he said. Dimissing charges of being arrogant, he said, "Arrogance is far removed from me. You can't call me arrogant when I am stating what I believe in with conviction."

What if we had the right to recall our leaders

Will the right to recall politicians work in the Indian electoral system?


Imagine having the power to recall your MLA or MP if he stopped paying attention to his constituency. That is the power of the Right to Recall, the next item on Anna Hazare’s agenda. Recall is a powerful tool to make politicians accountable since it does not require any corruption charges against them. It requires between 25 percent and 50 percent of the electorate to be dissatisfied by the MP/MLA’s performance.

So, instead of an opinion poll that Team Anna carried out in Kapil Sibal’s constituency, they could have campaigned for a recall vote and if, like the survey, 90 percent believed that Sibal had stopped representing them, they could have removed him from Parliament!

Switzerland and the USA pioneered this concept in the late 19th century. But most constitutional experts and political observers have panned the idea of recall in India.

“Given the number of people in an Indian constituency as well as our electoral system (first past the post), recall is an impractical idea made fashionable by arm chair critics. It works when the population of the constituency is small,” says Subhash C. Kashyap, former secretary general of Lok Sabha and author of several books on Indian constitution and polity. He says that a parliamentary constituency in India has 20 lakh to 30 lakh voters. If 50 percent of them need to petition for a recall through a signature campaign, it would be impractical to verify all signatures.

In the US, where 18 states have the provision to recall at the state level and 36 at the local level, 75 percent of all recalls happened at the city council or school board level. At the state level, California initiated 32 gubernatorial recall attempts since 1911, but the 2003 recall, when Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor, was the first ever to lead to a vote.

In India, the winning candidate has just 10 percent to 20 percent of the total votes. “Does that mean you will keep recalling all elected representatives?” asks Kashyap.

M.R. Madhavan of PRS Legislative Research says, “A recall may work against the electorate since the politician will be wary of taking tough decisions that may endanger his position in the short-term even though they may be beneficial for the public in the longer term,” he says.

Anna’s verdict on UPA: Four PMs and a clueless Sonia

If the top leadership of the UPA needed any further denting of its credibility, Anna Hazare delivered several knock-out statements in his interview to various TV channels on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, always suspected of lacking authority over his cabinet, gets the ultimate put-down from Anna. Speaking to Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN, he said the PM was a nice person, but “ineffective” because he was “remote-controlled” by senior ministers.

And who were these senior ministers? Anna’s answer: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal and Home Minister P Chidambaram.

Having taken a close look at how the government functioned when they dealt with him and his movement, the Gandhian crusader criticised all three ministers, who were part of the Joint Drafting Committee set up to draft the Lokpal Bill, of “behaving like prime ministers.” Asked to spell out what he meant, he merely said: “Everyone knows that they behave like Prime Ministers. Why do you want me to spell it out?”

Anna believes that Sonia and Manmohan listen too much to their courtiers and too little to the people. Shahbaz Khan/PTI
That makes for four PMs in all, including the one who the other three don’t listen to.

And what about Sonia Gandhi? Hazare was not willing to comment openly about her, except to say that she needed to learn from her late mother-in-law Indira Gandhi.

According to him, Sonia seemed to believe that if she had to run the government she needed her advisors (and possibly the ministers). “But there was Indira Gandhi. She became the Prime Minister again not on the basis of her party workers, but by working for the poor. They don’t seem to understand this.”

In short, Anna believes that Sonia and Manmohan listen too much to their courtiers and too little to the people.

The Home Minister, however, was a special target of Anna’s verbal attack. He accused Chidambaram of “masterminding” his arrest on 16 August, and said: “The government wanted to do a Ramdev on me. It had kept a plane ready to take me from Tihar jail to Mula Dam in Maharashtra. But Chidambaram’s strategy boomeranged on the government,” he said.

This is not the first time Anna has attacked Chidambaram for what he believes was his role in the run-up to his arrest and release in August. His release from Tihar jail culminated in the successful fast at Ramlila Maidan last month.

Calling the UPA government a bunch of “fools” soon after his return to his home base of Ralegan Siddhi, Anna had this to say on Chidambaram.

“This Chidambaram is a mischievous man. Chidambaram has lied many a time.”

But despite his tough words for Manmohan Singh and his ministers, Hazare was not any less contemptuous of the BJP, and LK Advani’s rath yatra against corruption. If they were so keen to work against corruption, why don’t they support the Jan Lokpal Bill and legislate Lokayuktas in their states?

Asked if he would support a front comprising non-corrupt people from non-BJP, non-Congress parties, he said: “I will support them but not lead them. Because that is the only solution to make a strong nation. The good people of all parties can come together and I will tell the people of the country to support them,” the Gandhian said.

However, Anna was evasive to a pointed question on why he had not raised his voice against the absence of a Lokayukta in Gujarat for the last seven years. “Why just Narendra Modi? We should think about the entire country. There should be a Lokayukta in every state,” he said.

And would he begin his protest again if Parliament’s standing committee does not agree to his demands on the Lokpal Bill, Hazare said: “Yes. We will protest but not against Parliament…We will see those who oppose it in the standing committee and we will start singing bhajans in front of the houses of those parliament members.”

Asked whether his movement was becoming too political he denied it. “No, not at all…there is no question of politics in this,” he said.

However, he did see political parties taking advantage of his movement. “That will happen…this happened many times in my life…When I protested during Congress government, BJP and Shiv Sena leaders were roaming around me…that government went and BJP-Shiv Sena came to power. Congress did a graduation and the latter got a doctorate (in corruption).”

Team Anna attacks Agnivesh over controversial video

New Delhi: Swami Agnivesh, a close associate of Anna Hazare, was the target of the core Team Anna which attacked him over a controversial video posted on YouTube where he is purportedly telling a person alleged to be a Union Minister that the government should act tough with the fasting Gandhian.

Agnivesh on his part claimed the video footage was 'doctored and concoted' and part of a smear campaign against him and denied he was talking to Union Minister Kapil Sibal. The minister was involved in negotiations during the intitial stages of the stand-off between Team Anna and the Government.

Team Anna member Kiran Bedi alleged that Agnivesh has been caught on camera where is asking a person after addressing him as 'Kapil', "Maharaj, why are you giving them so much?'


"Who's Maharaj? whether it is Kapil Sibal on the other side. He said Sibal sahab, I heard that," she said.
Bedi accused Agnivesh of being absolutely unethical. The core Anna Team and Agnivesh had developed differences during the course of Hazare's fast.

Bedi told PTI that the footage has "shocked us all and we are very uncomfortable" with it.
"Only he can answer this. He should own it or reject. However it leaves no doubt. It obviously tell us what happened. He should tell us who is the person whom he mentioned in this," she added.
Agnivesh said, "These were lies and it is a cut and paste job. There are several people in my personal circle whose first name is Kapil. I never address political leaders as 'Maharaj'. Kapil Maharaj could be anyobody" he said without disclosing the identity of the person whom he was seen talking to on the video footage.
In the video, Agnivesh is seen coming out of the ground floor of a building, which could not be identified, talking over phone.

He was heard talking about about Parliament's appeal to Hazare to end his fast and the Gandhian's insistence on continuing with his hunger strike.

Agnivesh allegedly said that what the other side was doing against the government was not proper.
He purportedly tells the person on the other side that government should not concede anything and deal firmly as they were toughening their stand whenever government is conceding something.

In the video, Agnivesh also referred to Parliament's appeal and said that if Hazare is not ending his fast even after a 'big appeal' from the whole Parliament, then it was not good.

Anna Hazare upset with Govt mediators: Sources

New Delhi: Anna Hazare is reportedly upset with Government's move to employ mediators to start talks with him on the Jan Lokpal Bill, sources have told CNN-IBN. Spiritual guru Bhayyuji Maharaj and senior Maharashtra bureaucrat UC Sarangi were involved in back-channel talks with Team Anna on Sunday,
According to his close associated Hazare reportedly wants senior Government ministers to hold talks with him because is believes that a strong Lokpal is a national issue.

Union Telecom and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has reportedly told Bhayyu Maharaj that he is ready to talk with Hazare if other members of Team Anna - Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan, Shanti Bhushan and Kiran Bedi - are kept out.

However, Team Anna said that that no one representing the Central Government had contacted them and questioned Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Harish Rawat's statement that the Centre had initiated talks with Hazare and his supporters at various levels to break the deadlock.


Bhayyuji Maharaj said that he will attempt for an open debate on the Lokpal Bill.

"Both sides want a solution. But there needs to be start, which is unfortunately getting delayed. I want both the government and Team Anna to come together for a strong Lokpal bill. Open debate should take place on contentious issue and talks should be transparent and in public domain. Anna's arrest was a mistake," said Bhayyu Maharaj.

As Hazare's fast entered its seventh day on Monday, there are no signs of compromise yet over the issue of which bill - Government's Lokpal Bill or Team Anna's Jan Lokpal Bill - should be passed by Parliament.
Team Anna has also refused Government's offer for four months to discuss and pass the Lokpal Bill.