CITIZENS of India are welcome to join the VPN club. With New Delhi left looking rather sheepish after jumping the gun and blaming Pakistan squarely for the Pahalgam attack, and its narrative finding few takers around the world, the Modi regime decided last week to escalate tensions in what is possibly the strangest way possible: banning popular social media accounts from Pakistan. Since then, the Indian government has gone on the offensive against Pakistani sports stars, popular celebrities and news channels, and now politicians as well, ordering social media companies and content platforms to withhold their posts after declaring their content too “provocative” for Indian audiences. One wonders amidst this madness where New Delhi’s priorities truly lie. Instead of ensuring security and protection for its people, the Indian government seems far more concerned with protecting them from the memes Pakistanis have been posting in response to its constant jingoism. Does the Modi regime feel that the echo chambers it has built for the Indian people are under threat from our dark humour?

The people of Pakistan and India share much in common, especially when it comes to their choices of entertainment. They follow each other’s sporting leagues, film and TV celebrities, social influencers, cooking channels and much more. This is a natural consequence of two countries sharing a common past and similar cultures. However, with the advent of the BJP’s toxic brand of Hindu revivalism, New Delhi has gone to great lengths to disavow its western neighbour, including, now, by blocking Pakistani accounts online. They could have asked the Pakistani authorities: such bans hardly work. What one consumes over the internet usually comes down to a matter of choice, and if Indian citizens are interested in watching or reading what Pakistanis have been posting online, they will find a way to continue doing so, regardless of their government’s thoughts. After all, that is what Pakistanis have become experts at in the past few years.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2025