Dear all,<br><br>The Hindu, a major English-language Indian newspaper also carried a piece on India's proposal yesterday: <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3423018.ece?homepage=true&fb_source=message" target="_blank">India's proposal for government control of Internet to be discussed in Geneva</a>. Interestingly, it mentions that when the reporter contacted the Ministry of External Affairs for a response, she was referred to the Department of Information Technology. The latter never got back to her.<br>
<br>The occasion for all this attention for India's proposal within the country is a four page letter an independent MP has written to the Prime Minister, requesting the PM to ensure that the proposal is withdrawn. The MP in question (Rajeev Chandrasekhar) was also among the first to
criticise a set of rules for intermediaries that were notified by the
government in April 2011 and which we have been trying to get Parliament
to withdraw over the past year. These rules are coming up for a debate
(and probably also a vote) in Parliament tomorrow. <br><br>Chandrasekhar's letter says, among other things:<br><br>"India's position (in the statement), even though cleverly worded, hurts its reputation of a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and democratic society with an open economy and an abiding culture of pluralism. Further, it hurts the advancement of the Internet as a vehicle for openness, democracy, freedom of expression, human rights, diversity, inclusiveness, creativity, free and unhindered access to information and knowledge, global connectivity, innovation and socio-economic growth. It is fundamentally against the interest of 800 million mobile users and over 100 million Internet users in India, who need to play a continued role [sic] by strengthening the existing multi-stakeholder process, rather than moving Internet governance to a government-run, inter-governmental, bureaucratically organised system - as proposed by India".<br>
<br>For those interested, the full text of the letter can be found here: <a href="http://www.rajeev.in/NewsRoom/rajeev_writes/Government_proposal/Prime_Minister_May152012.pdf">http://www.rajeev.in/NewsRoom/rajeev_writes/Government_proposal/Prime_Minister_May152012.pdf</a><br>
<br>Best regards,<br>Anja<br><br><br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On 16 May 2012 22:11, Sivasubramanian M <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:isolatedn@gmail.com" target="_blank">isolatedn@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<font color="#333333"><font><font face="verdana,sans-serif">India Today,
one of the most respected news magazines in Inda and Headlines Today,
its Television channel today criticized India's current proposal for
"web takeover"<br>
<br><a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/india-wants-internet-watchdog-proposes-50-nation-regulator-to-un/1/189032.html" target="_blank">http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/india-wants-internet-watchdog-proposes-50-nation-regulator-to-un/1/189032.html</a><br>
<br>The good news is that the press is beginning to pay attention to
what our Government is doing on its own, without due consultation.</font></font></font><br><font color="#333333"><font><font face="verdana,sans-serif"><br><br clear="all"></font></font></font><div>Sivasubramanian M<br><div>
ISOC India Chennai</div><div><a href="http://isocindiachennai.org/" target="_blank">http://isocindiachennai.org</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>facebook: <a href="http://goo.gl/1VvIG" title="goo.gl/1VvIG" style="line-height:19px;font-size:13px;white-space:nowrap;font-family:arial,sans-serif" target="_blank">goo.gl/1VvIG</a></div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Dr. Anja Kovacs<br>The Internet Democracy Project<br><br><a href="tel:%2B91%209899028053" value="+919899028053" target="_blank">+91 9899028053</a> | @anjakovacs<br><a href="http://www.internetdemocracy.in/" target="_blank">www.internetdemocracy.in</a><br>
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