The recent proposal of censoring the online content regarding politicians like Sonia Gandhi, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee etc asks or rather forces us to gulp our views back within ourselves. It is a step that has been taken only to deface the public’s criticism and their anger towards the political figures for say any reason, defamation of their personality or the recent elections coming up. With the help of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, people these days don’t just come to socialize but also to discuss about the current global issues. This is one way out for the people to get aware about the pros and cons of any particular event, thus leading them to discuss, comment or criticize about it. And this is why we confirm that we live in a Democratic Country where the vox popyuli regarding any political figure or event has a scope of getting heard. 

So, rather than concentrating on this coward act to rush away from the citizen’s anger and their criticism, politicians like Kapil Sibbal and others should introduce methods that can shun other important topics in our country that’s set on a spree such as corruption, credibility of law, terrorists attacks etc. I believe that more than creating a “Situ” for saving their images online and finding an easy way out of the public’s laughing basket, our politicians should realize it sooner that even if the online content censoring is done, the outburst of the common man and his vigilant protests cannot be further stopped; it will only increase to create a burning rage! 

Deepti Sahoo, Journalism Student.