Saying that a person has amassed more wealth than Robert Vadra is now a criminal offence in India. But only if that person is the finance minister' son,
This isn't quite today's development. Thanks to an obscure section of the Information Technology Act of 2000, amended in 2008, you can harass the life out of anyone you don't like, if you happen to be in a position of power.
Mamata Banerjee used this act against the hapless JU professor who emailed to his friends a mild cartoon (bit.ly/MB-toon) featuring the lady. That triggered off outrage in media and social media, and a wave of Mamata jokes with the #arrestmenow tag on Twitter.
This time, the Twitter jokes are muted. It isn't funny any more. The threat of arrest for saying something Mr Sibal or Mr Khurshid or Mr Chidambaram don't like is uncomfortably real.
The power and arbitrariness of that section was evident in Mamata's government's interpretation. It didn't matter if the cartoon has been published somewhere; it doesn't matter who drew it: if someone emailed it to friends, you grab him and throw him in jail.
If you're a social media user in India, be afraid. Be very afraid of Section 66A of India's IT Act: it can send you to jail for three years.
All that's needed is that someone should believe that you sent "false, offensive or menacing messages using computers or communication devices...to cause annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will". It's even more sweeping: the 66A can send you to jail for sending an email message that "causes annoyance or inconvenience..."
S Ravi, a 46-year-old industrialist in Puducherry-he runs a packaging unit-tweeted on October 19 Chidambaram's son Karti had "amassed" more wealth than Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law. He was arrested and charged under section 66A. Bizarrely, the police demanded a 15-day remand, which was denied, for this was a bailable offence.
Now, technically, publishing on Twitter is not "sending a message" as mentioned in 66A. Twitter should be covered under section 67, "publishing of information". But loose interpretation is the privilege of the powerful.
Of course, there was another little reason for picking on the little-known S Ravi. He is an India Against Corruption (IAC) activist.
So Section 66A becomes a simple tool to send the kind of message that people in power like to: be careful of dissent, or of too much questioning. Be careful of associating with IAC.
S Ravi did make an error. Unlike Arvind Kejriwal, he made an unsubstantiated allegation. He faces three years in jail for that error. Now, you can take recourse to the law against libel and slander and defamation, but that is a lot more complex and long drawn out. Section 66A is convenient, sweeping, and certain of hitting just about any target as long as there is authoritative backing.
Like any other powerful weapon, Section 66A can and has been also used, albeit very rarely, in fairness to the end of justice - as in the case of Tamil singer Chinmayi. (This is unlike India's sedition laws, which are bizarre, anachronistic, and are being thrown mostly at dissident cartoonists.)
Like many other female twitter users, singer and entrepreneur Chinmayi Sripada, 28, ignored years of "trolling" on Twitter-online harassment by people posting inflammatory, off-topic messages. Finally, on October 18, she filed a police complaint about a series of vulgar comments aimed at her on Twitter, and the Chennai police registered a case under IT Act Section 66A, and others including the Prevention of Women Harassment Act. An NIFT associate professor and a government employee were arrested.
But as long as this section remains so loosely worded and sweeping, it will remain a powerful, draconian weapon of oppression of anyone viewed as a dissident, by the ruling party. "Smaller fry" are especially fair game, to send the message that however small you are, be careful of what you post: we are watching you.
The Ministry of ICT needs to seek legal advice and recommend a modification. But given that Mr Sibal has a new lease of life as head of this ministry, and given his love of censorship and control, that is as unlikely as Mamata rewarding a mocking cartoonist with a hilsa dinner.
(Prasanto K Roy (Twitter @prasanto) is editorial advisor at CyberMedia. The views here are his own, and not those of The DQ Week, CIOL or any of the group's publications)
