Protesting the illegal and unlawful blocking of the Sikh political news and views website sikhsiyasat.net, the Sikh Siyasat News management has dashed off complaint letters to 5 ISPs under whose network the website remains blocked since 6 June 2020.

THROUGHOUT PUNJAB AND INDIA, sikhsiyasat.net is not accessible to users who use BSNL FTTH, BSNL Cellular, Jio 4G & Jio Fibre, Airtel and Connect Broadband as their networks. Interestingly, the website has been selectively blocked across Punjab and India. The site is working in all other countries. No notice was served by any governmental authority or the ISPs.

This Sikh political news and analysis website has been forthrightly expressing its views from pro-Sikh and pro-Punjab perspective.

Speaking to WSN, Sikh Siyasat News editor Parmjeet Singh said that they have sought details from the ISPs through our communication to them via email. The complaint letter says, “If any governmental authority has sent any order/direction/circular/notice directing to block the access to the URL sikhsiyasat.net, then that should be immediately communicated to me so that corrective action can be taken.”

If we do not get an appropriate reply within the next 72 hours, we will be constrained to take legal action.”

Parmjeet Singh, editor, Sikh Siyasat News

The Sikh Siyasat team has sought under what “authority of the IT Act or any other applicable law such action has been taken and has warned the companies that in case Sikh Siyasat does not receive a response within 72 hours, it “would be constrained to take legal action.”

Parmjeet Singh shared with WSN that, “In October 2015, when the government of Punjab had concerns about the content of the website and they had complained against the site, a notice was received and the Sikh Siyasat team had personally responded to the Department of Electronics and Information Technology. Satisfied with the response, no step was taken against the site.”

He further revealed that “Data analysis by the technical team of Sikh Siyasat team revealed that the website traffic to sikhsiyasat.net is being intercepted by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Punjab and India and is being blocked using ‘deep packet inspection’ enforcing ‘inline blocking’.

“This selective blocking is a new type of mischief and we will not take it lying down.”

Sikh Siyasat News editor Parmjeet Singh pointed out that “This is a new type of mischief by the government where selective blocking of the website has been done, making it difficult to pinpoint the main culprits. Still, we will not take this lying down.”

In fact, Sikh Siyasat News has installed an update on the Apple platform, which enables Apple users to view the website, notwithstanding the unauthorised blocking and are now working on the Android version.

Reassuring readers across the Sikh world in Punjab and India, Parmjeet Singh said, “We are doing everything within the law of the land to counter this move of government agencies forcing private ISPs to block our site. We thank everyone who has expressed solidarity and joined the campaign for unblocking the site.”