Journalist, Editor, Writer I Print/digital newsroom leadership for over three decades I Krika Cottage I "No rest for the weary"
New Delhi, India
Joined May 2009
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"If you don't see what's behind that which you see
You're as blind as blind can be"
Tirukkural, 355
Sunit Arora retweeted
Some things to keep in mind for those running websites and whose social media is at risk:
1. Export your social media history regularly and keep offline backups. Account blocking is a real problem.
How frequently, is up to you. For x, you can pay a little for API access. If you get blocked you can host your social media archive on your own site. I've hosted mine at mymem.info/nixxin . This reminds me I need to update it
Youtube is obviously a different beast because it's usually long video.
2. Avoid .in domains like the plague. NIXI keeps changing policies and becoming more regressive. If you have one, redirect. Check MediaNama's coverage of nixi. We reported on bigrock blocking sites many years ago as well.
Corollary:
a. avoid Indian registrars and very popular ones as well.
b. Register multiple domains for your keyword as backup as well.
3. Keep a backup server on another host and backup your deployments and social media. Websites can be backed up every 6 hours if you want. Keep 3-4 backups.
Allows you to go live again.
PUBLIC STATEMENT BY PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA
On the arbitrary takedown of paranjoy.in by Hostinger following legal notices from Indiabulls founder Sameer Gehlaut
October 31, 2026
On the morning of October 28, 2026, my website paranjoy.in and all its associated subdomains, including media.paranjoy.in and adanifiles.paranjoy.in, were abruptly taken offline by our web hosting provider, Hostinger (HOSTINGER operations, UAB). The website, registered twelve years ago, serves as an online archive of my work over several decades as a journalist, author, publisher, and maker of documentary films and music videos
Hostinger gave no prior intimation, warning, or opportunity to respond before suspending the entire hosting account. When my colleague contacted Hostinger “Support” at 6:48 AM on October 28, a hosting “specialist” stated that the suspension was triggered by an abuse report for "Fraud/Scam" and declared that "unsuspension is not negotiable in this case."
This sudden shutdown of an entire repository under the label "Fraud/Scam" happened just days after Sameer Gehlaut, founder of the Indiabulls group, served me with an ex parte court order demanding the removal of a single article published more than seven years on Newsclick.in.
For over six years, Indiabulls and Shri Gehlaut have pursued legal action over this report and I have consistently defended our journalistic report in court. Here is the timeline:
· March 11, 2020: Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited filed a criminal defamation complaint (CC No. 1765/2020) before the Patiala House Courts, New Delhi, against NewsClick, its Reader's Editor Urmilesh, co-author of the article Sourodipto Sanyal, NewsClick editor Prabir Purkayastha, and me over an article published on the website on September 30, 2019.
· June 6, 2025 and July 9, 2025: More than five years after the complaint was filed, a Judicial Magistrate at Patiala House Courts passed an order on June 6, 2025, dropping proceedings against Shri Purkayastha while issuing summons to the remaining four accused, including me, under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code. A formal summons was issued on July 9, 2025, for appearance on July 30, 2025.
· August 27, 2026: Counsel for Shri Gehlaut, sent me a legal notice demanding the takedown of the article within 24 to 48 hours, claiming that a status report by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police had altered the factual position.
· September 2, 2026: My counsel sent a reply pointing out concerns with the legal notice
· October 24, 2026: Indiabulls Nests Limited (Plaintiff No. 1) and Sameer Gehlaut (Plaintiff No. 2) obtained an ex parte ad interim injunction from the Court of one of the District and Sessions Judges, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi, in Civil Suit No. 529/2026 (Indiabulls Nests Ltd. & Anr. v. Ashok Kumar/John Doe & Ors.), in which I am arrayed as Defendant No. 19. The order directed the removal and de-indexing of the article on paranjoy.in (listed as Item A-33 in Schedule A).
· October 25, 2026 (10:13 AM IST): Advocates representing Indiabulls Nests Limited and Sameer Gehlaut, emailed me the October 24 court order and suit documents, demanding immediate deletion and written confirmation of compliance.
· October 26, 2026 (11:33 PM IST): Sameer Gehlaut personally sent an email from his official address ([email protected]) demanding the immediate deletion of the URL from paranjoy.in and threatening to move the court under Order XXXIX Rule 2A of the Code of Civil Procedure if I did not comply, noting that the matter is next listed on December 18, 2026. While I was in the process of challenging the order dated 24.10.2026 before higher forums, on the same day, advocates representing Shri Gehlaut submitted a court order takedown complaint to Google LLC.
· October 28, 2026 (3:16 PM IST): Google Search Console sent an automated notice ([WNC-598900]) informing me that Google was blocking the specific URL paranjoy.in/article/the-maze… from appearing in search results on google.co.in.
The Lumen Database record of this complaint (Notice ID: 101001876) reveals the scale of the takedown request. The complaint targeted 52 URLs on websites across major national and international news organisations, including The Economic Times, Business Standard, The Caravan, The Daily Pioneer, Business Today, Deccan Herald, ET Now, Financial Express, Livemint, Moneycontrol, Moneylife, NDTV Profit, The New Indian Express, Outlook Business, The Quint, Quartz, and NewsClick, along with posts on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Scribd.
Most of these reports on major corporate news websites remain accessible online. In fact, Item 39 on the Lumen takedown list is the original September 30, 2019 article published on NewsClick.in: newsclick.in/The-Maze-of-Pol…, which remains live and accessible as of now.
Yet, in the case of paranjoy.in, the entire domain and every website hosted on my account were wiped off the internet.
Hostinger's Baseless "Fraud/Scam" Claim and Demand for Accountability
Hostinger did not cite the Patiala House Courts order when it suspended my account on October 28, 2026. Instead, its representative claimed that the hosting account was permanently suspended due to an abuse report for "Fraud/Scam".
This allegation is demonstrably false:
1. VirusTotal Security Analysis: Independent domain checks conducted on October 28, 2026, at 7:48 AM and 7:54 AM on VirusTotal confirm that 0 out of 92 security vendors flagged paranjoy.in or media.paranjoy.in as malicious, phishing, or fraudulent. VirusTotal explicitly categorises paranjoy.in under "news and media".
2. Google Safe Browsing Status: Checks on the Google Safe Browsing diagnostic tool at 7:55 AM and 7:56 AM on October 28, 2026, for both paranjoy.in and adanifiles.paranjoy.in returned the status: "No unsafe content found".
My website paranjoy.in does not sell financial products, solicit funds for commercial schemes, or engage in any activity that could remotely be classified as a scam. It is a repository of public-interest journalism, books, documentary films, and investigative reports built over a lifetime of work. By acting on a fabricated "Fraud/Scam" abuse report without a single verification check or prior notice to the domain owner, Hostinger has allowed its abuse-reporting mechanism to be weaponised to censor an independent journalist.
Even where a court order directs the removal or de-indexing of a specific URL, a web hosting provider has no legal or ethical justification to pull down an entire domain and hundreds of unrelated articles, archives, and subdomains without notice.
I demand immediate answers and accountability from Hostinger:
1. Who submitted the false "Fraud/Scam" abuse report against paranjoy.in, and on what exact date and time was it received?
2. What internal verification did Hostinger's abuse team conduct before classifying a 12-year-old journalism portal as a "Fraud/Scam" site, especially when 92 security vendors on VirusTotal and Google Safe Browsing show zero malicious or unsafe content?
3. Why was no prior notice, warning, or copy of the complaint sent to me before suspending the entire hosting account?
4. On what basis did Hostinger's specialist declare that the suspension of an entire archive of journalistic work is "not negotiable"?
While my legal advisers are in the process of taking appropriate steps in court regarding the ex parte order dated October 24, 2026, and the wholesale suspension of my website, this backdoor censorship through web hosting providers sets a dangerous precedent for the independence of the media and freedom of expression as enshrined in Article (19)(1)(a) of the Constitution of India as a fundamental right of every citizen of India.
Yours sincerely
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
Independent Journalist, Author, Publisher and Maker of Documentary Films and Music Videos
Rare piece by a technology writer - don’t buy👇🏽
I have reached the stage of life where I write articles telling people not to buy shiny new gadgets. In my defence, smartphone prices keep rising while the reasons to upgrade keep shrinking.
In @livemint today, I present a grumpy uncle's guide to buying your next phone.
Har Har madness 👇🏽
🍝 Pasta, French fries, hummus, falafel: "Third Class"
🥙 What is Pita bread in front of 'Mata ki Roti'?
🍫 Raids on mithai makers to push chocolates and dry fruits
After lecturing Muslims on what they should eat, the Sangh Parivar starts its dictation to Hindus. @mumbaimirror
Sunit Arora retweeted
Last week, a school friend returned a book he had borrowed fifty-six years ago.
Sunit Arora retweeted
A beautiful old staircase inside Mumbai’s City Sessions Court. Loved the arched window and the wooden railing. A little piece of old Mumbai.
Sunit Arora retweeted
Two days to go and 90% of the seats are gone …. Here is your last chance to watch Sandhya Gokhale’s new play ‘Silhouettes’ with Amol Palekar in Delhi on Oct 26. The performance is a fundraiser for @thewire_in …. events.thewire.in/ticket/
Sunit Arora retweeted
AEB a controversial safety feature because of sudden, heart-stopping applications that can get you rear ended. Calibrating AEB systems for low-speed chaotic Indian conditions has been a challenge that needs to be overcome before AEB becomes mandatory
.@MORTHIndia has proposed making Advanced Emergency Braking Systems (AEBS) mandatory for all cars from October 2032.
Tap below for more info: autocarindia.com/industry/mo…
Sunit Arora retweeted
Members of three Christian families were allegedly assaulted inside their homes by people identified by the victims and witnesses as members of the Bajrang Dal. The women were allegedly beaten, their clothes torn and some of them stripped to the point of partial nudity. Minor girls were not spared either, the families alleged.
The incident, an attempt at religious persecution, took place in Patlapur village, under Chandrakona police station in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur district, amid the Durga Puja festivities. The families said they faced sustained attacks and intimidation over three consecutive days.
Madhu Sudhan Chatterjee reports from Chandrakona in West Bengal
m.thewire.in/article/communa… via @thewire_In
Sunit Arora retweeted
Short form video killed my species, and it wasn't even good
Humanity was raptured by the most mid slop imaginable
noahpinion.blog/p/maybe-the-…
Sunit Arora retweeted
India’s economy is apparently booming... just don’t ask the unemployed graduate, the indebted household, the struggling small business or the fleeing foreign investor. GDP growth has become the government’s success story, sharing its benefits remains someone else’s problem.
Sunit Arora retweeted
Emergency is Back! @instagram Account of a Prominent Cartoonist @satishacharya is currently restricted in India. Wah @narendramodi Wah!
Emergency is back ! RT @medianama Twitter Deletes Political Cartoons Posted By DNA Cartoonist @MANJULtoons goo.gl/fb/61Inl
Sunit Arora retweeted
This ties in with our study and concerns about usurious app loans and payday loans ! @RBI is sleeping!!
Piramal Finance Management Flagged an Emerging Risk in the Gold Loan Industry
One of the most interesting comments from the Q2FY27 concall was around the quality of gold loan borrowers across the industry
Management highlighted that around 15-23% of industry gold loan disbursements over the last year have reportedly gone to borrowers who were already 90+ DPD on another live loan
That is a surprisingly high number
Another important trend:
- Two years ago, only 20-25% of customers across Piramal's portfolio had an active gold loan elsewhere
- Today, that number has increased to >35% across every product category
Khela hobo 👇🏽
Election Commission's own software contains a lock written for one state, and only one - West Bengal.
An independent audit of the Commission's portal ECINET, reported by @htTweets has found a feature that can bar Electoral Registration Officers and Assistant EROs, only in West Bengal, from two critical functions:
🔹Reviewing voters' enumeration forms
🔹Viewing the notice and hearing dashboard
Officers in every other state have access to both. The audit found no such exclusion anywhere else in India.
The audit was carried out by the civic-tech initiative Charchagram. Its data scientist Saurav Rajput examined ECINET's publicly served code on October 2, 6, 7 and 9. The feature was still there in code fetched as recently as October 19.
In his words: West Bengal is separately hard-coded in the codebase & excluded from it (for ERO and AERO).
Understand what is at stake.
The enumeration form page holds each voter's details - name, voter ID, who submitted the form, the documents uploaded & the booth level officer's recommendation. It holds the ERO/AERO-Document & Hearing-Order files, along with the buttons to send a form back to the BLO or flag it.
The notice & hearing dashboard is where notices are tracked and hearings processed. It is where the decision is made about who stays on the roll and who is removed.
Under the law, the ERO is the officer responsible for preparing and revising the electoral roll. If ECINET can shut Bengal's EROs out of the forms & the hearings, the country has a right to know who would be reviewing them instead.
On September 24, the Election Commission told the country that ECINET is a decentralised platform and that nobody else can perform their statutory function on ECINet, including any other officer of ECI.
If only EROs and AEROs can perform these functions, and the code can bar Bengal's EROs and AEROs from the forms and the hearings, then the Commission's two claims cannot both stand.
Now look at the timeline -
🔹September 26: After two Election Commissioners raised objections, the Commission set up a committee to examine whether ECINET complies with the law, following complaints that control of electoral rolls had been centralised.
🔹September 28: Bengal exception has existed in the code at least since this date.
🔹October 16: A new build of the app is introduced. Bengal exception is still in it.
🔹October 19: The exception is still present in the live code.
While the Commission said it was examining whether its system had been centralised, the code continued to treat one state differently from every other.
When Hindustan Times sent the Election Commission a questionnaire, it did not respond.
Nation demands-
🔹Explain why ECINET's code contains a West Bengal-only exclusion for EROs and AEROs.
🔹Name who ordered this code to be written & when.
🔹Disclose whether this restriction has ever been switched on, in which constituencies, and for how long.
🔹Reveal who reviewed Bengal's enumeration forms and hearings during any period the restriction was active.
🔹Publish ECINET's access rules and access logs, and place the portal before an independent technical audit with the findings made public.
Code does not write itself. A hard coded exception for one state is a deliberate choice & someone made it. The Election Commission must tell nation who made that choice & why.
From Karnataka's "dead" voters to Delhi's "untraceable" citizens & now a Bengal only exception in the Commission's own software, the same question keeps coming up: who is really in control of India's voter rolls?
The vote belongs to the people, not to whoever controls the code.
hindustantimes.com/india-new…
Sunit Arora retweeted
But why do they have to read books when they can just read the WA forwards and listen to 56" monkey baat?
Sunit Arora retweeted
Disenfranchisement is real - Jean Dreze and Yogendra Yadav respond to Surjit Bhalla and set the facts straight on SIR.
Sunit Arora retweeted
Made in Kurla - Fiat/ Premier Padmini is now a part of classic collections. #CarCultureinMumbai
Sunit Arora retweeted
Protests don't define the state of a democracy as much as the response of the government to the protests does.
Important:
Here’s something that a LOT of people don’t know about what’s actually going on with Delhi Police.
CJP’s Saurav Das & Ashutosh Ranka have been sent to 2 more days of judicial custody in Tihar Jail.
By a judicial court? NO.
They have been kept in Tihar Jail for the last 6 days on the order of a Special Executive Magistrate (SEM).
Who is an SEM? He is an ACP-rank (junior) police officer of Delhi Police appointed by the state govt.
Therefore, Delhi Police arrested Saurav & Ashutosh & now a Delhi Police ACP (acting as SEM) is keeping them in jail.
There’s no FIR against them. There’s also no judicial order.
Delhi Police are the accusers & well as the judge when it comes to keeping them in jail.
That’s how messed up it is.