Sajad Lone backs Sibal's internet censorship drive

Under fire from netizens, union telecoms and information minister Kapil Sibal has earned support from the valley's separatist-turned-mainstream politician Sajad Lone, who heads his faction of the Peoples Conference.

Under fire from netizens, union telecoms and information minister Kapil Sibal has earned support from the valley's separatist-turned-mainstream politician Sajad Lone, who heads his faction of the Peoples Conference. Lone, who faces unparliamentary language from Twitter and Facebook users over issue he rakes up, sees a point in having censorship on certain contents on the Internet.

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"Some of the stuff that goes on the social media network is truly offensive and needs to be censored," wrote Lone on Twitter with barrage of negative response though from followers.

Arguing for a censorship, Lone said, "Some form of censorship in social media is a cultural response in sync with the prevalent culture. It as perfectly natural."

Lone, son of slain separatist leader Abdul Ghani Lone, contested parliamentary polls in 2008, first separatists to contest polls arguing to use democratic spaces to explore a solution to the Kashmir problem. His move attracted severe criticism from hardline separatists like Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

"Blasphemous and obscene contents certainly need to be censored....problem in India is the obsession to imitate the west. Wake up. This is not west. different values, cultures, responses, interpretations," wrote Lone.

Union minister Sibal on Tuesday sparked a national debate over censorship to certain kind of contents allowed to be flashed by Internet giants like google and yahoo.

Lone says India readers have different sensibilities thus needs a sieved content. "Not everyone understands or interprets garbage in the spirit of garbage. Some tend to take it seriously. Garbage published can mean trouble," he said.