As Punjab farmer groups prepared for this week’s protest march to Delhi, the Union government invoked its powers under a British-era law to suspend mobile Internet in certain districts of the State last week, citing a public emergency and public safety. This is the first time the Union government has issued such orders to block the Internet, outside of the national capital.
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Given that law and order is a State subject, the more usual procedure is for a State government to issue such orders, as was done in neighbouring Haryana, which is governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Punjab, however, is ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party.
In a departure from norms, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued two orders, on February 10 and February 12, under the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules, 2017 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885. The orders, issued following a reference by the Intelligence Bureau, resulted in the Internet being suspended within the jurisdiction of 20 police stations in seven districts of Punjab — Patiala, SAS Nagar, Bathinda, Sri Mukhtsar Sahib, Mansa, Sangrur, and Fatehgarh Sahib — till February 16.
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A Punjab government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Union government had the power to issue such orders under the Rules, adding that the Punjab government had not objected to it.
Used against CAA protestors
This provision was first used by the MHA in 2019 during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, when the Internet was suspended in some areas of Delhi. As Delhi is a Union Territory, the police functions under the MHA. Later, the same provisions were used to suspend the Internet again in parts of Delhi during the farmers agitation of 2020-21 that lasted nearly 13 months.
The Rules, framed in 2017, empower the Union Home Secretary or a State’s Home Secretary to pass directions to suspend telecom services, including the Internet, in an area “due to public emergency or public safety”. Any such orders by the Union Home Secretary then have to be reviewed by a committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary within five days.
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While Haryana has blocked the entry of the farmers — who are heading to Delhi with a seven point charter, including a demand for guaranteed minimum support prices for their produce — they did not face any physical resistance from the Punjab government. In fact, Punjab has even protested the Haryana police’s use of drones to drop tear gas on the agitating farmers.
X suspends news accounts
Meawhile, X (formerly Twitter) has suspended the accounts of journalist Mandeep Punia and news portal Gaon Savera, which were both reporting from the Punjab-Haryana border, following a “legal demand.”
Olympian Bajrang Punia termed this an attack on free speech. “The accounts of Gaon Savera, a channel which shows true news about rural distress and farmer labour movements, and journalist Mandeep Punia has been closed by the government of India, which is very wrong,” he posted on X, in Hindi. “This is an attack on India’s free press, an attack on journalists. We all stand with the freedom of speech of pehelwan patrakar (wrestler journalists)“.
Hundreds of farmers belonging to the Samyukt Kisan Morcha-Non-Political (SKM-NP), a splinter group of the original SKM, and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have been stopped at the Shambhu Barrier on the Punjab-Haryana border by the Haryana police. A large contingent of central armed police forces have been deployed to stop the farmers’ convoy from moving towards Delhi. Police dropped tear gas canisters from drones and also fired rubber and plastic bullets to deter the farmers from moving ahead. Around 60 farmers and 24 policemen are said to have been injured in the clashes on Tuesday.