A couple of days back, when BJP announced the appointment of Amit Shah as its new party president, historian Ramachandra Guha had tweeted:

Amit Shah's heading the BJP is 'an all time low for the criminal justice system' writes @RanaAyyub : http://t.co/Y26VYhTqLq She is right. — Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) July 9, 2014

It was quite a shock, therefore, to find another tweet by him saying:

A column by @RanaAyyub on Amit Shah has been pulled down by DNA: check http://t.co/Y26VYhTqLq A new low for media self-censorship? — Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) July 11, 2014

Expectedly, there was a wide-spread outrage and condemnation on Twitter. But there was no statement or explanation from DNA.

Speculation ranged between whether it was a case of censorship because of pressure from the ruling dispensation or a case of, as Guha seemed to suggest, self-censorship, with someone in the DNA establishment perhaps taking pre-emptive action?

Confusion was further confounded when the article seemingly resurfaced, and while Twitterati traded charges about whether it had been a simple "technical problem" and paranoia on the part of those who assumed the worst or whether it was a case of a rethink caused by the widespread anger and threats to boycott the publication.

Ram Guha tweeted again, this time saying:

The column by @RanaAyyub pulled down by DNA has now been restored: http://t.co/Y26VYhTqLq Glad there was a re-think! — Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) July 11, 2014





The relief, however, was short-lived as the article disappeared again, with Ayyub herself confirming that she had checked with DNA and they were not restoring it, and that the article had "become visible because they [were] attempting to clear the cache."

And sure enough, the article remains missing, with no explanation.

Earlier, during the Lok Sabha elections, too, an article by “proud Congress supporter” Shehzad Poonawalla titled “Mamata Banerjee calls Narendra Modi ‘butcher of Gujarat’; here are 9 myth busters on 2002 post-Godhra riots” had similarly gone missing from the DNA website, again without any explantion on April 30.

It seems that kind of a time. A controversy still rages over alleged destruction of files by the home ministry under instructions from the PMO. And of course a blog post by the acting defence minister demanding making public of Henderson-Brooks report on 1962 China war was similarly deleted without any explanation.

Clearly those responsible have not learnt how strong the Streisand Effect is on the internet -- any attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely.

Equally, disturbing, however is that while somethings go missing, some suddenly crop up, equally mysteriously, again without any explanation, such as IB reports, be they about foreign-funding of NGOs or about someone who, as an Amicus appointed by the Supreme Court, had taken a tough stand in the Sohrabuddin, Kauser Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter cases.

Some of the reactions on Twitter: