Mamata questions Centre's move to tinker with Internet laws

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday came down heavily on the BJP government and expressed concern over the Centre's move to change laws to control the Internet and urged leaders of all political parties to strongly oppose it.

With general elections round the corner, she questioned the timing of the move and said it was aimed at "censoring speech".

"We are extremely concerned and worried about the central government's sudden interest in controlling the Internet. I have been reading about the changes the BJP government wants to make to the laws which govern the Internet. It almost seems like they are scared of the free flow of ideas and criticism of their bad policies," Banerjee wrote on social media adding that she would ask her MPs to raise the issue in Parliament.

"I request all political leaders to strongly oppose this wrong policy change at this crucial time. I will ask my MPs to raise this in Parliament as well. We can't let India's democracy and power of people on social media to be censored," she said.

The Chief Minister further added: "We must ask why the Modi government is scared of social media which they use to attack others and which helped them to win in 2014." She also wondered: "What is the need to change the laws now before elections? Are they trying to censor speech? Are they worried that social media is now becoming the real media where people express their views?"

It may be mentioned that Mamata Banerjee had first pointed out that the BJP leaders had doctored videos of incidents that had happened in Bangladesh and not in Basirhat in North 24-Parganas and later uploaded them on social media to win the sentiments of the people. During the party meetings, she had asked her leaders and workers to be active on Facebook and protest against any wrong information which might be circulated by the BJP.