Faculty Fellow Susan Ostermann (global affairs) wrote an opinion piece for The Print titled, “Haryana Internet to Smoking, Bans are India’s Go-to Tool because it has a Weakness.” In the article, she describes the recent internet and mobile SMS shutdown in India due to farmer protests and whether or not this drastic approach is legal or necessary.
She concludes, “Many of us recoil at such broad prohibitions, not least because they smack of authoritarian tendencies. But despite the draconian veneer, the fact remains that bans—regardless of whether it is the bureaucracy or the courts that initiates them—have usefully been employed in service of priorities articulated by a democratic regime.”