Porn banned in India? RGV criticises the move

Mumbai, Aug 2 Taking a dig at the inaccessibility of porn sites over various internet service providers in the country, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma said “depriving consenting adults” of watching porn is equivalent to what “Taliban and ISIS is doing to freedom”.

As per reports, most internet service providers -- including Vodafone, MTNL and BSNL -- are showing blank pages instead of porn sites. The matter came to the limelight late on Saturday, when a number of internet users across the country could not access pornographic websites.

Varma took to Twitter on Sunday to criticise the move.

In a series of tweets, the “Sarkar” director wrote: “Considering the sheer popularity of porn whichever government owns up to banning it, is sure to be wiped out of existence in next election. Government should work on finding ways to steer the content not to go in wrong directions rather than to block it.

“To deprive consenting adults of the harmless fun they are having of watching porn is equivalent of what Taliban and Isis is doing to freedom.

“To ban porn saying it will be seen by who shouldn't see it is like saying to stop traffic because there will be accidents,” Varma added.

The hashtag #PornBan became a top Twitter trend on Sunday morning. 

Writer-filmmaker Milap Zaveri tweeted: “Huh Porn is banned??? Hmmm not the sites I know about!”

Musician Vishal Dadlani wrote: “I wouldn't be surprised. Ironically, banned by the same party whose MPs were caught watching porn in parliament.”

Actor-producer Uday Chopra also took to Twitter to share his opinion. “So India bans porn. Will this decision lower the cases of sexual violence or increase it. I wonder," he posted.