(I had written this article after the Supreme Court’s refusal to quash a defamation case in a Thane court against a student-blogger in Kerala, Ajith D. A shorter version was offered to a newspaper which refused to publish it. So finally I’m posting it here. For a better context, please see Lawrence Liang‘s posts on the subject. Whatever is written below is without prejudice against any of the parties named. For the history of the Shiv Sena encounter with Orkut, I am graetful to Gaurav Mishra for this excellent article.)

If you search “Shiv Sena” on just the communities section of the social networking site Orkut, you get 244 results. There are love-Shiv Sena and hate-Shiva Sena communities (essentially discussion boards), but my favourite is one called “Shiv Sena v/s Anti SS” which seeks to sort out differences between “sainiks and anti-sainkis”. It further states, “If anyone posts hurting a fellow member, that post will be deleted. There must be some amount of respect towards fellow members. The owner being Anti shiv sena will debate for Anti SS.” The community was started by “Madhushree It takes courage to be true.” and has 111 members at the time of writing. Continue reading In the Supreme Court of the Indian Blogosphere →