J&K Govt fails to block blasphemous film; 15 Lakh views on YouTube alone

IGP: We have done whatever possible; there’s some problem with Delhi

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 15: With the Government of India ignoring all requests from Omar Abdullah’s state government, the highly inflammable American blasphemous film on Prophet Mohammad is continuously accessible on Internet. In the last six days, the film has been posted on over a dozen of fresh sites and the number of viewers on YouTube alone has meteorically risen to over 15 lakhs.

Well-placed authoritative sources revealed to Early Times that the SOS of Omar Abdullah government, asking the Centre to immediately block access to the inflammable movie on Internet, has been completely ignored by Government of India. Consequently, the film is as easily available to a common man as it was six days back. Even the reasons of inaction have not been communicated to Srinagar.

“In fact, the film was initially available on just two sites six days back and not more than 100,000 Netizens had watched it all over the world. Now, it has been posted on over a dozen sites and the video has been watched by more than 15 lakh viewers till this evening”, said a government source. He said that CID Wing of J&K Police had immediately alerted the Government and subsequently the state authorities had taken up the matter with the Centre on Thursday last. However, Government of India has not taken any action.

Surprisingly, none of the Ministers, bureaucrats or officers, either from Police or from Information Technology Department, was on the job of getting the film blocked or monitor the developments in New Delhi. Amid reports that the State government was in touch with the Centre, Early Times made sustained efforts to learn if there was any desired action but concluded with the observation that nothing had been done beyond issuing statements of condemnation through media. All and sundry in the government, including Governor, N N Vohra, and Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, have condemned the blasphemous movie but none of them has asserted to match rhetoric with action.

Surprisingly, this correspondent found in first attempt that the controversial film was intact on the cyberspace and freely available on over a dozen of YouTube links. Initially, just some edited clips had been posted last week but now High Definition (HD) clips of the duration of 13:51 minutes and 11:36 minutes, besides trailers of 1:32 minutes, are freely accessible on YouTube. Ardent surfers claimed that the full length film was now available on at least two domains and over a dozen other sites carried around 14 minute clips and 2 minute trailers.

Minister of State for Home Nasir Aslam Wani could not be reached for comments as his mobile phone was continuously switched off in the evening. Principal Secretary Home, B R Sharma, said that he had no latest knowledge and advised to contact the ‘Nodal Officer’. However, the Nodal Officer [IG CID, Dr B Srinivas], was not reachable over telephone. Officials said that he was currently traveling in Hyderabad as one of his close relatives was seriously ill and admitted in a hospital. DIG CID, Mr N D Wani, said that he too had no knowledge of the developments. He said that he had read in a local newspaper today that Principal Secretary Home had taken up the matter with Government of India.

Mr Wani said he had no knowledge of the fact that the film was continuously available on YouTube. SP SB Kashmir, Dr Haseeb Mughal, was reportedly busy with a short duration departmental training course in New Delhi and thus not available for comment.

Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Bharat Bhushan Vyas, said that he was currently preoccupied with an urgent personal work in New Delhi. “I am aware that yesterday our Government sent a letter to the Centre, seeking complete blocking of the film on Internet”, Mr Vyas maintained. He said that he would return with an update if made available to him.

IGP Kashmir, S M Sahai, too confirmed that the state government had sent an urgent communication to Centre for Emergency Response under union Ministry of Telecommunication and other concerned agencies. However, the needful had not been done in the last two days. “We are told that a 14-minute clip has been blocked. There is some problem with Government of India, some procedural wrangles with Google and other service providers. We have done whatever was possible for our Government”, Mr Sahai said with a note of disappointment.

Significantly, Internet services in India, including in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, are operated by the Government of India-controlled Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) besides a host of private service providers authorized and licensed by the Centre. They include Tata Indicom, Reliance Communication, Bharti Airtel, Aircel and Idea.

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