Taken offline for nine days, Assam realises internet is much more than social media

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However, it was only nine days later, on December 20 (Friday) at 9 am — a day after the Gauhati High Court issued an order revoking the ban — that the mobile internet services were restored. “I have no words to express how bad it was,” said Hoque, describing the week gone by. The 22-year-old lives in a rented accommodation in Guwahati, and pays Rs 11,000 in monthly instalments for his cab. “We are simple middle class people. I must have lost at least Rs 12,000 in the past week. For someone like me, that’s a fortune. The cab business is not a regular monthly salaried job, it’s like a daily wage business. Moreover, maintaining a commercial vehicle is hard: there are payments for permits, insurance etc. How will I manage now?” he asked.

In the past week, Hoque attended several protests organised by the All Assam Cab Operators’ Union. “Ours is an internet-centric business,” said Ismail Ali, the Union’s president, “There are at least 12,000 cabs in Guwahati that depend on the internet to function, whether it is Ola or Uber. We carried out many protests about how we should be compensated, but the government paid no heed.”

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‘We couldn’t raise our voice’

The internet shutdown affected other aspects of daily life in Assam too — apart from the numerous app-based livelihoods like food delivery, academicians and students, many of whom had exams coming up, bore the brunt of the blackout.

“The shutdown happened in the middle of our exams — which subsequently were postponed,” said Megha Pradhan, 23, final year student of Mass Communication at the Dibrugarh University. “We depend a lot on the internet to study. Sure, we have a library but we constantly need to refer to PDFs and academic journals. As a Mass Communication student, I couldn’t even follow up what was happening around the world. Only today, I found out what happened in Jamia and AMU,” she said.

Others like Partha Deka of Guwahati’s B Barooah College felt the absence of social media “like never before” during a time “the state was burning.” “To a certain extent, we depended on local TV channels to mobilise ourselves for protests. But our entire generation is ‘digital’ — I did not miss the internet because I wanted to put up pictures. I wanted it because as citizens, this was the time we needed to raise our voice — and social media is a suitable platform that has wide reach. Sadly, it was curtailed,” said the 3rd year BA student.

Shops on Guwahati’s busy GS Road remained shut till December 15. Express photo by Tora Agarwala

The ban was lifted following an order after four public interest litigations were filed by journalist Ajit Kumar Bhuyan and advocates Bonoshri Gogoi, Randeep Sharma and Debakanta Doley in the Gauhati High Court. “Initially, the ban was put in place because of numerous violent incidents. There was a curfew in place. However, later, the government kept extending it meaninglessly. And in such a scenario, fundamental rights were getting infringed,” said Swati Bidhan Barua, well-known transgender activist, who is also a conciliator in a Lok Adalat. Baruah represented one of the petitioners in the case which led the Gauhati High Court to order restoration of services commencing 5 pm on December 19. The order said that “there was an obvious shift of situation to a better state of affair” and that “although there are reports of sit-in demonstration taking place even today, such protest are not reported to have yielded disruptive and violent results.”

Mobile internet, however, was restored only on December 20 (Friday) at 9 am. When it did, Uber and Ola drivers and app-based food delivery services swung into action by midday and many residents of the state took to social media to express their displeasure at the nine-day-long ban. “Does the government think the internet is just about propaganda? Today it is the medium of daily bread earning numerous app-based livelihood like cabs, restaurants, home-based jobs. No more violation of people’s basic rights please” wrote one irate Facebook user.

Businesses affected

The anxieties moved beyond those whose businesses primarily depended on the internet too. Shops on Guwahati’s busy GS Road remained shut till December 15. Mehtaj Zaman Ahmed, a 33-year-old entrepreneur who runs a Hidesign franchisee in GS Road said that the past week went “terribly” for business. “The fact is people don’t carry cash nowadays. Many times customers would come to our store, want to buy something but leave because the card machine was not working. Since we are a high-end brand, there are loyalty programmes and birthday discounts attached. None of that worked. All we could do was hope for a customer with a lot of money in hand to come and buy something right away,” said Ahmed, “But that was just wishful thinking.”

Her other businesses — a cafe and a restaurant — were affected too. “Swiggy and UberEats were both completely shut, so we lost out there. Even if curfew was lifted, it has taken people a lot of time to get back into the rhythm of buying or eating out. It was ten days, but the loss is worth a month’s,” she said.

Bipul Barman, a shopkeeper of a hardware store in the city’s Hatigarh Chariali said he did not see customers for nearly the entire week. “Who does cash transaction these days? Many people did not have cash, and there was no way we could do card transaction. Financially, it was a big loss,” he said. Yet others, like Malvika Saikia, a Guwahati-based blogger, said she was trying to look at the “positive side of things.” “My workstation was the internet. To look at the brighter side of things, when the curfew was lifted, I started visiting people — something I had stopped doing. I learned to call people. It felt like I was living in the 1990s again,” she said

Banks, too, saw a rush of customers. “While our bank’s internal server was working, internet banking was not. We had a rush of anxious calls and customer visits because net banking services were down,” said an employee of the city’s HDFC bank, who did not wish to be named.

‘Use Social Media With Caution’

While Broadband services resumed in the state from December 17, government officials said there were reasons for the delay in restoring mobile internet services. “These decisions are based on inputs given by intelligence agencies. If we get a report saying that there is likelihood of a problem then we have no alternative but to take a decision in favour of extending the ban,” said Kumar Sanjay Krishna, Additional Chief Secretary to Assam government’s Home and Political Department.

On Friday, the Gauhati High Court dismissed a review petition filed by the Assam government seeking the court to review its order on the restoration. “After the court said that it should be restored at 5 pm, we received information about huge gatherings (estimated at 30,000) in places like Makum and Dhemaji (in Upper Assam). Large numbers would be travelling at night, intelligence reports suggested that it was better not to revoke the ban in the evening. That is why we went for the review,” said Krishna.

When internet services were restored on Friday morning, the police warned the citizens to use social media with caution. “We request citizens to be cautious while posting or sharing unverified/provocative information on social media. We are looking forward to your continued support in ensuring peace & harmony in the State” read the Assam Police’s tweet.

Krishna while confirming that the internet ban was off, and that there was no decision to extend it, said that, “If something [untoward] were to happen in the future, we will bring it back again. In such a situation, the government will have to take necessary action for the protection of life and property and maintenance of law and order.”