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New Delhi: Angry internet users and India's main software trade group were pleading with the government to reopen blocked websites and blogs that have been down since the Mumbai bombings. The government had shut down all blogs, including the popular www.blogspot.com, in an attempt to block a potential outbreak of communal violence by political and religious extremists. "The Indian Internet service providers don't have the technological wherewithal to block specific blogs on a blogging site. Consequently, they ended up blocking the entire site," said technology expert Pawan Duggal. Kiran Karnick, president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies, the country's main information technology trade group, said his organisation would take up the matter with the government.
"It is neither desirable nor possible to impose censorship on the Net," Karnick said.
Experts however, said that users could still access many blogs by connecting to them through third-party websites that the government had not blocked. Sarabjit Roy, a cyber law expert, said blocking websites was a mindless exercise. "It shows that our bureaucrats don't understand technology at all," he said.
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