Yul Kwon:
Joining us now from New Delhi is Ajoy Bose, a veteran political journalist, to talk about what’s behind the calls for self-censorship on the Internet. Thanks for coming on the program, Ajoy.

Ajoy Bose:
Happy to be here.

Yul Kwon:
The NDTV reporter noted that there have been a lot of offensive posts on Twitter and Facebook. Can you give us a few examples?

Ajoy Bose:
I think what really got their goat was photographs of Sonia Gandhi. There is a page on Facebook called "We Hate Sonia Gandhi," and there it shows Sonia Gandhi as a beggar, begging on the streets of Delhi. And what is more, they show her as a cripple, her arms shriveled. There is one photograph of her in a marriage ceremony with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There’s another one that shows Sonia Gandhi playing with Manmohan Singh as a monkey. There’s a lot of abusive stuff, there are a lot of four letter words used about her, people want her to be tried for treason...it’s some pretty vicious stuff.

Yul Kwon:
Sonia Gandhi is the head of the ruling Congress Party, why was the minister so upset about these personal attacks on her?

Ajoy Bose:
I think that Sonia Gandhi has a larger than life personality -- the Gandhi dynasty is almost like the royal family to the congress, they’ve ruled India for many years and certainly rule the congress, so I think Sibal was trying to be more loyal than the king.

Yul Kwon:
What’s been the response to the minister’s demands in the mainstream and social media?

Ajoy Bose:
He’s really had a lot of trouble. I think that he’s made a big mistake. If you’re talking about "hate Sonia" pages, I think more than two dozen hate pages against Kapil Sibal have erupted. You have "Kapil Sibal Sucks," "India Against Kapil Sibal," "Hate Club Against Kapil Sibal"... the list is endless. All kinds of abuses have been held against him, he’s been called a "pig," a "madman," a "drunken monkey," and of course an idiot. It’s amazing, I feel sorry for the man because I know him quite well. It’s really worked very badly for Kapil.

Yul Kwon:
What do you think accounts for this backlash against him?

Ajoy Bose:
Nobody likes to be messed around with, particularly the social media community. So they’ve all come down on him, and it’s very embarrassing for him.

Yul Kwon:
Have there been many people who’ve been sticking up for Sibal at all?

Ajoy Bose:
Of course there are people who are ready to say, yes indeed, some of the stuff is very offensive on both Facebook and Twitter, certain blogs are very offensive, sometimes they are downright racist, there is a very communal slant to them. But you can always take people to court, the laws of the land are there and they can specifically charge people. They’ve gotten needlessly involved in this controversy trying to do censorship. Democracy is a major thing here in India -- that’s probably the only thing that is working here. And so people don’t like any kind of censorship.

Yul Kwon:
Thanks Ajoy. Ajoy Bose is a journalist based out of New Delhi.