Blog Wars, Power, and India

I have been blogging for over a year now, and have blogged about every topic under the sun about this mundane chagrin called life. What I have mostly refrained from writing about is my personal opinions on politics, government and the works. Maybe I deemed myself too unintelligent to have an opinion of my own, or maybe I was a little too afraid to voice my stand for fear of criticism and having to defend my own views. I was maybe a little wary of this world of blogs for reasons I was not sure of.

Today, on one of my blog hopping sprees, I came across two very different and very interesting blogs.

I found the first link on Vidhi’s blog about brutalities on a non-suspecting law-abiding citizen in Bangalore. Nimish Adani writes that he was brutally beaten by railway officials in Bangalore as part of a heist by a group of people to make easy money off unsuspecting individuals. Read all about it here. Abuse of power does not come as a surprise to many of us who are aware of the corruption and politics that usually goes hand in hand with a government job. However, seldom are such abuses publicized, even less, blogged about. Adani had the courage to stand up for justice and the patience to do the rounds of dozens of offices before he was taken seriously. He had the network through which he sent out emails to everyone regarding his situation hoping to get media attention which would definitely speed up the process. He even blogged about it. In no time, he was being backed by a network of supporters from all around the globe. The media got a hang of it, forcing government officials to take immediate action. I commend Adani’s patience and courage.

Unfortunately, not everyone is as courageous, patient, or has as much will to stand up for justice against a system that does not make being at the recieveing end of justice any easy. The email messages Adani sent out played a major part in building a support group through which he did get in touch with several media personnel to highlight his plight and fight for justice.
Abuse of power calls for another post another day. Here, I am pondering over how effective and powerful cyberspace can be in our world today.

Another development that has had a powerful impact in blogsville recently is the controversy over IIPM’s advertising and supposed false claims about the institutions credentials. All I had to do was stumble upon the links at Sadik’s and Clueless‘s blog and voila, I was reading through and devouring page after page and comment after comment of this hullaballoo.

Here is a synopsis: Gaurav Sabnis linked an article by a magazine JAM evaluating IIPnM, its claims, and its credibility. Sabnis blogged about his personal opinion on what he thought about IIPnM. Apparently, IIPnM did not take that very kindly and issued him a “legal notice” via email of a possible lawsuit of Rs 125 crore and several conditions along with it. The situation gets even more interesting with Sabnis’s employer IBM being dragged into this. Sabnis resigned from his job because he wanted to stand by his principles.

Now, why do I care? Why did I sweat over this piece of controversy when I could have easily refrained from posting about it? Honestly, I could care less about what IIPnM claims or advertises because really, I was not aware that an IIPnM existed, or that there was a magazine JAM, or a blogger Gaurav Sabnis before I stumbled upon umpteen posts and blogs about this isssue.

What I do know is that Sabnis is a blogger. Everyone reading this right now is a blogger and has blogged about all and sundry, each voicing his/her opinion. Are we now supposed to shy away from what we think is right and wrong? Can I as a blogger be sued for criticizing an institution that I do not believe in? As a blogger, am I not entitled to my own personal point of view and freedom of speech? Lets say I am terribly upset about how a certain company’s government handles its affairs and I decide to blog about. Should I then be on my toes waiting for a legal notice to arrive from the government? Really, is it now illegal to articulate in words what I really think about something or someone on a blog? It is one thing to publish false stories as facts and another to publish one’s own opinions and views,

A blog by definition is anything from an online journal to a reflection of the bloggers personality and views.

I remember the recent volley of arguments and disagreements over the right choice for the Indian entry at the Oscars at Ashtrix’s blog. A lot of us frivolously voiced our likes and dislikes between Black and Paheli. Do we now need to be waiting for a notice from SLB or Amol Palekar for saying we did not like their movies or that we think they shouldn’t be the official entry to the Oscars?

What is even more disturbing is the way the institute handled this. The worst thing an educational institution can do is get caught in this kind of negative publicity. Rashmi Bansal (editor of JAM)’s blog has been inundated with lewd comments from supposed IIPM students and alumni. Now, I cannot comment on the veracity of IIPnM’s claims, and I may be biased towards the bloggers, but I do know that truth does not need justifications. If IIPnM is truly what it claims to be, why does it not come out in the open and really show the world what it is. Why did it not invite Gaurav Sabnis to its campus so that they could clear his misunderstanding if they thought he had any? I am sure Sabnis would have been happy to visit and re-comment and possibly revise his thoughts had there been anything different to say about IIPnM. Could this be how supposedly established institutions handle criticism?

As for my take on this, I think it takes a man of courage to quit his job in order to stand by his principles. The actual facts maybe completely skewed from my perception of the situation, and my knowledge of the story is only one-sided here. But I do know that if someone has an opinion about something, the person is fully entitled to it.

In my opinion, that is freedom of thought and speech.

Sabnis is also being backed by a huge network of friends, bloggers, and supporters. Updates on this at Desipundit.