The Economist - USA (2021-02-06)

The EconomistFebruary 6th 2021 Asia 31

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I

diamin, thelateUgandandictator,once

declared thatherespectedfreedomof

speech,butcouldnotguaranteefreedom

afterspeech.India’sgovernmentseemsto

betakingthisconceptonestepfurther.De-

spiterunningwhatisoftenhailedasthe

world’sbiggestdemocracy,ithasgaineda

tasteforcurtailingfreedombeforespeech.

JustaskSiddiqueKappan,a journalist

whohasbeendetainedsinceOctoberun-

dertheUnlawfulActivitiesPreventionAct.

Hissinwastohavebeencaughtdrivingto-

wardsHathras,a districtinthestateofUt-

tarPradesh.Otherreportershadgathered

theretocovertheallegedgangrapeand

murderofa Dalitwomanbyupper-caste

men.MrKappanneverreachedthevillage

ofthe19-year-oldvictim,whosefamilyas-

sertthatstatepolicesidedwithheralleged

killers,tothepointofseizingandcremat-

ingherbrutalisedcorpsetoconcealtheevi-

dence. On the defensive, police have

claimeda widerconspiracytocausecaste

conflict.TheyaccuseMrKappan,arrested

ata highwaytollbooth,of“intent”tostirup

trouble of this sort.

Someone else familiar with such “in-

tent” is Munawar Faruqui. A popular young

stand-up comedian, Mr Faruqui is also

now behind bars. Along with five asso-

ciates, he was arrested in the city of Indore,

in central India, on January 1st after the son

of a politician from the ruling Bharatiya Ja-

nata Party (bjp) complained about the con-

tent of their show—or rather, content that

the plaintiff believed might appear in the

show. In fact, there is no evidence that the

show did include “derogatory remarks”

about Hindu gods or government minis-

ters, as alleged. Nevertheless Mr Faruqui

and his friends have repeatedly been de-

nied bail, with one judge commenting that

“such people” must not be spared.

These may look like isolated cases, but

they reflect a wider trend. In anticipation

of popular protests, the government reflex-

ively pulls the plug on internet service, par-

ticularly via smartphone. Such shutdowns

were pioneered in restive Kashmir, where

the revocation of local autonomy and

statehood in 2019 was accompanied by pre-

emptive arrests and a 213-day internet

blockade. Ostensibly for security reasons,

mobile connections in much of the former

state—now run directly by the national

government—remain limited to lumber-

ing 2gservice. The authorities now deploy

internet-muting as a crowd-control tactic

across India, including the capital. During

the ongoing stand-off between protesting

farmers and police on the borders of Delhi,

mobile networks have been shut down for

hours at a time to discourage flash mobs. A

recent report estimates that the 8,927 hours

of internet restrictions imposed by the

government during 2020 cost the country

$2.8bn in forgone economic activity.

In addition to this scattershot ap-

proach, the government is also targeting

individuals. One new initiative invites

“cyber volunteers” to join police in hunting

“anti-national content” on the internet.

Twitter reports that during the first six

months of 2020, the number of official de-

mands to remove content swelled by 254%,

DELHI

Thegovernmenthastakento

censoringpeoplebeforetheycomment

Preventionis

betterthancure

Tweet heat

India, number of legal demands to remove

or withhold content on Twitter

Source:Twitter

January-June

July-December

3,000

2,000

1,000

0

201918171615142013

FreespeechinIndia

I

n asia meetingsdo not begin until busi-

ness cards have been swapped. It is no

mere formality. Accept the card with two

hands and carefully examine it, noting the

giver’s title and other indicators of rank—

essential information in any strongly hier-

archical business culture. It is so important

to master this ritual in Japan (just how deep

does one bow?) that numerous books and

courses promise to transform bumbling

novices into meishi-koukan (card-swap-

ping) virtuosos. If a new acquaintance fails

to give a card to Glenn Lim of ceoAsia, a

Singaporean business-networking com-

pany, “it makes me forget them,” he says. 

Yet the pandemic has put the business

card on life support. Networking is diffi-

cult when white-collar workers have fled to

home offices, business lunches have been

cancelled and conferences have migrated

online. Orders for business cards from

Vistaprint, a multinational printing com-

pany, plummeted by 70% in late March and

early April and have yet to recover fully. Mr

Lim normally hands out about 200 cards a

month. In the six months following Singa-

pore’s lockdown in March, he reckons he

dispensed about five. “I’ve forgotten what

business cards look like,” remarks a British

banker based in Singapore. “How do you

sanitise them?”

But it is still helpful to know who is who

at meetings, even when they take place on

Zoom. Companies are therefore reimagin-

ing the business card for the era of social

distancing. Nagaya, a Japanese firm, prints

them on face masks (a literal interpretation

of a Japanese metaphor that likens busi-

ness cards to one’s face). After the launch of

the “Meishi” mask, traffic to Nagaya’s web-

site surged by 65,000%. 

Sansan, another Japanese firm, allows

companies to sort scanned business cards

so bosses can see which employees have

made new contacts. It also offers “virtual

cards”. Users receive qrcodes which they

display as virtual backgrounds on video-

conferencing apps. Scanning the code with

a phone camera will summon the user’s

digital business card. Some 4,300 compa-

nies have begun using Sansan’s virtual

cards since they launched in June. 

But Mr Lim, who uses Sansan’s virtual

cards, does not plan on binning the paper

version just yet. People tend to exchange

virtual cards after meetings have started or

as they end, forcing participants to ask who

does what during the meeting itself.

“That’s sometimes a little bit rude,” he says.

Many others in Singapore are evidently

fond of paper cards, too. Sales at Express-

Print, a printing company, have picked up

in the past two months, as more people re-

sume in-person meetings. Stephen For-

shaw, head of public affairs at Temasek,

Singapore’s sovereign-wealth fund, says

that he recently topped up his supply of

cards for the “first time in a long time”.

Even Edward Senju, the head of Sansan’s

operations in South-East Asia, still keeps

some in his wallet, “just in case”. 7

SINGAPORE

Business cards are going online

Asian corporate culture

Here’s my QR code