Shashi Tharoor, the leader of the Congress, said on Twitter that India is the only country that often takes down the Internet for days, annoying its residents.
A day before the Supreme Court hearing on the ethnic violence in Manipur, Tharoor made a statement. The state has had Internet outages ever since the hostilities broke out, creating problems in all spheres of society.
According to Shashi Tharoor, the head of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, there is no evidence that internet restrictions can prevent violence.
In a tweet sent today, Tharoor said, “It is a reflexive bureaucratic action that causes far more inconvenience to ordinary citizens than a useful security measure.”
“I hope the Supreme Court will stand up for the rights of citizens instead of for the narrow-minded babus who are completely unaware of the effects of their decisions on citizens who use the Internet for banking, credit card transactions, enrollment, examinations, &to obtain all kinds of essential information,” he continued. This horrible conduct must stop right now, says the Court.
The Manipur High Court ordered the state government’s Internet ban to be removed on July 7. The hearing is on Monday, but the state administration ignored the directive and instead petitioned the Supreme Court.
Since May, there has been ethnic violence in Manipur between the Meitei and Kuki populations.
Despite Congress’s repeated requests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not spoken on the current violence in Manipur. According to the Congress, this topic would be discussed at the forthcoming Monsoon Session in the chambers of Parliament, which begins on July 20.