CAA: Kunal Kamra Starts A Petition Requesting The Govt To Stop Internet Shutdown, Initiates Hashtag ‘NoNetBandi’

Standup comedian Kunal Kamra is known for his political comedy, which has garnered him both- some very loyal fans and some detractors. Now, he has started a petition to Ravi Shankar Prasad (Minister of Electronics and Information Technology) and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi asking the Union Government to stop Internet shutdown in India. The petition on change.org by Kunal Kamra states that people in nine states including Delhi, Kashmir and more are being denied access to information as the government has shut down the Internet.

 Kunal Kamra added, “The lower the flow of information, the worse is the law and order situation.” Asking the union government to stop Internet shutdown in India, the hashtag  #NoNetBandi was initiated for the same. The petition states that India has witnessed over 100 communication shutdowns this year alone and that internet services were suspended in at least 9 states- Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Delhi, Karnataka, Kashmir, Meghalaya, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. It also stated that it had been 140 days of information blockade in Kashmir on December 22, 2019 and that it is the longest communication shutdown ever in a democracy.

Kunal Kamra’s petition also states that such shutdowns affect the working of essential facilities like banks, hospitals and have a devastating impact on the economy, and has asked people to sign his petition stating that access to information is a right.

Kunal Kamra also took to Twitter and shared a picture showing a bar graph of the countries shutting down the Internet the most (Jan 2016- May 2018), and it shows India topping the list by a huge margin. He wrote, “India is No 1 When it comes to shutting down the internet undemocratically... Sign this petition & make your self heard while you’ve some WiFi. http://change.org/StopInternetShutDown Use the hashtag - #NoNetBandi.”