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Tue, 30th Jun 2009   Savita Bhabhi is no longer part of the online lives of millions of Indian fans.
The IT ministry banned the website on her on June 3, without an official announcement or a notification.
A website broke the news on Saturday, claiming to have accessed the official circular,
ordering the censoring of the website by Indian internet service providers.
"We are talking to our lawyers and trying to figure out our options," savitabhabhi.com's administrator
Deshmukh told. "The initial reaction is since the site does not pose any threat to India's national security
and is not illegal, it must be against international law to block it. However, we are still working on the legal angle."
Under the recently amended IT Act, the government can ban websites that do not
subscribe to norms of public decency and morality on the web.
A senior IT ministry official told DNA, "The site was banned in the first week of June under the Act. This is not censorship."
The popularity of the site (reportedly 60 million unique visitors a month) is often cited as an example of how soft porn
has a mainstream market. "The ban can't stop content from sprouting in other places.
How many sites will they block?" Nikhil, a regular visitor to the site, said.
Such was Savita Bhabhi's impact that in less than a year, major marketing initiatives were based on her.
For example, a consumer goods major fashioned a similar character to hardsell its products in villages.  | 
