Shazneen Mistry
www.mediaeyenews,com
In the year 2020, it was seen that the BJP government had 115 internet shutdowns, which was the highest number of shutdowns ever recorded in India. Apart from the shutdown, the government also declared boycotting all the Chinese applications, as it was declared that using these apps would be an insult to India’s nationality, integrity, and national security, as a result, many of the Chinese apps had been banned in India. Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, which is prone to internet shutdown, the study has shown that the probability of an internet shutdown in a district administered by the BJP is 3%. In contrast, the corresponding internet shutdown in a non-BJP ruled district is 0.8%.
It was also noted that the BJP is traditionally less powerful in India’s southern states and it was found that this was the region where the internet shutdowns rarely occurred. It was seen that the intensity of the internet shutdown was the highest in the states ruled by BJP. On average, the number of districts affected per month by an internet shutdown in non-BJP ruled states was 2.7, but on the other hand, the average goes up to 9.6 districts for BJP-ruled states, a significant three-and-a-half-fold increase. This type of shutdown was also seen in the years 2013, 2017 as well as 2018. In 2019, the highest number of internet shutdowns was seen in 76 districts where there were protests for the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The general observation of the report was that the BJP had been backsliding ever since the party was voted to power. The internet shutdowns and backsliding had given so much trouble to the command masses that it was even accounted for. In conclusion, it would have been preferable if the government had taken into account how the shutdown would affect a person and their work.
