The Indian government’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is threatening in less than one day to ban an acclaimed United States based website BannedThought.net for so-called “objectionable content” and “Naxal and Anti-National Propaganda” (a notice on the website is viewable here http://bannedthought.net/IndiaBanningBT.htm

The Indian state’s crimes against the Indian people and widespread suppression of dissent are increasingly known in India and abroad. The banning of an international website shows that the Indian state is fearful of this exposure. It shows the extent to which the government seeks to prevent international news and information sources from reaching the Indian public.

 
The ministry’s letter cited BannedThought’s hosting of several specific pages as grounds for censoring the website. The pages include one that features news reports about government assaults on the Indian people, including Operation Green Hunt
(http://bannedthought.net/India/MilitaryCampaigns/index.htm a page with a scanned copy of the 2010 work “Jungelnama: Travels in a Maoist Guerrilla Zone” by the late author Satnam
(http://bannedthought.net/India/General/Books/Jangalnama-Satnam-2010-sm.pdf as well as several other pages with content about mass struggles, and the writings of various revolutionary groups.

BannedThought’s editor states “What little remains of the right of people in India to free speech and to hear the uncensored views of others (both from within India or internationally) is rapidly being curtailed. The irony of a government banning a website which itself exists to expose the banning of ideas is apparently totally lost on the ever more fascist regime in India.”

 
We agree. We urge all progressive journalists and organizations to protest and appeal this action, and to oppose the Indian government’s attacks on intellectual freedom and democratic rights.

 
The Free Saibaba Coalition: US