Panjab Police Blocked 6,000 Social Media Handles in Last Three Years

At a recent National Investigative Agency (NIA) conference, Panjab Police informed the Union Home Secretary and Director of Intelligence that in the last three years they had blocked 6,000 social media accounts – on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms. Inspector General of Police (Internal Security) Nilabh Kishore stated these bans were to stop the recruitment of youths by jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and Canada-based terrorist Arshdeep Dalla, through social networking sites. An NIA official said gangsters most active on social media are Lawrence Bishnoi, Sampat Nehra, Bhupi Rana, and Lucky Patiyal. The numbers might be as claimed, but such a ban is an instance of greater policing and does not solve the ground issues. The rise of gangsters in post-militancy, post-liberalization Panjab is related to rising real estate prices and political patronage. Real estate brokers needed muscle men, personal security guards, and goons to solve land related issues so they targeted the youth of Panjab and neighboring states where education levels were failing and there were hardly any gainful job prospects. This led to gangs and guns, which have also been eulogized through movies and songs. The political patronage continues. Earlier this year, Bishnoi gave two interviews from jail in which he mentioned cow protection and nationalism, which are Hindutva agendas. At the same time, the ban on gangster social media handles is used as a cover-up for gross free press violations and disruption of information from Panjab in March 2023. During the manhunt for Amritpal Singh, over 500 handles – many belonging to journalists – were suspended in Panjab under the ban. Many have not yet been restored.