‘‘There are ways to bypass the ban which makes it ineffectual, but there’s another complication, it’s not easy for India to block blogs selectively if they are not hosted here,’’ says Supreme Court lawyer Pavan Duggal.

The effort to ban is also out of tune with a new Amnesty International attempt supported by Republicans in the US to help sites like Yahoo! resist censorship attempts abroad.

The other blogspot sites that the Government ordered a ban on: CommonFolkCommonSense.blogspot.com and PajamaEditors.blogspot.com, which plays on the word Mujahadeen (Pajama-hadeen).

Curiously, a fourth blogspot site, PrincessKimberly.blogspot.com, is on the Government’s blacklist. It hosts only a woman’s rantings over how she ‘‘is bored.’’

Mypetjava.mu.nu, another site in the gag order, is still up and running but Hinduhumanrights.com/hindufocus.html is gone as is Dalitstan.org, which the world outside India can see refers to ‘‘Brahmin Indira Gandhi’’ and other personalities who have been ‘‘at war’’ with India’s Dalits.

RahulYadav.com, viewed through a search engine, displays aspirations to ‘‘liberate’’ Kashmiri Hindus, and is gone too.

Several experts pointed out that India was not alone in trying cyberspace censorship but India’s position is slightly muddled by the fact that the Information Technology Act, 2000, is silent on blogs or blogging. Officials in the Ministry of Information Technology cite a July 14, 2003 gazette notification that gives the government rights to restrict access to the Internet.

The notification lists five parameters that can allow blocking of websites, which include threats to sovereignty, security of the country, friendly relations with another nation, public order or to prevent a cognizable offense.

... contd.