Al-Jazeera is back on air. For those of you who did not know: a news channel called Al-Jazeera had disappeared from your TV screens for five days, starting April 22. Al Jazeera was banned from broadcasting by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry because of repeatedly using a wrong map of India.

An inter-ministerial committee that looks into such complaints concluded that the channel was guilty of “cartographic aggression” (yes, something like that does exist) and it deserved to be given a “deterrent punishment for its misdemeanour”.

Now what constitutes cartographic aggression?  According to Indian law, publication of maps depicting inaccurate external boundaries is a cognisable offence, under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1961, with imprisonment for a term, which may extend up to three years, or with fine, or with both.

The, law, however, it seems, is invoked with great selectiveness – and the government only deems certain organisations to be capable of cartographic aggression. Of course, if you are an international media organisation that has been pretty critical of India, it won’t help your cause.

Only last month, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, carried an inaccurate map of India (without some parts of Jammu and Kashmir) in its mouthpiece, Organiser.  Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, had then said it is “neither the view of the government, nor the party or the Sangh”. The Sangh explained that the map was sourced from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) website and the error was inadvertent.  Apology accepted. How can the RSS, after all, be guilty of cartographic aggression against Bharat Mata?

In September 2014, a map of China handed out by the Gujarat government as part of a media kit, seemed to show parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Kashmir as disputed territory. It happened in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the Gujarat government signed a series of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with China. The Gujarat government clarified that the map wasn’t part of the MoUs.  And that was that.

During Modi’s visit to Australia last year, a wrong map of India, again without Kashmir, was shown in his presence during his visit to the Queensland University in Brisbane. The Ministry of External Affairs had then said it had lodged a “strong protest”. However, expectedly it wasn’t seen as an instance of cartographic aggression.

In February this year, a senior United Nations (UN) official, in his presentation, used an incorrect map of Jammu and Kashmir at a water summit held in India to discuss the sanitation situation in India. The official said it was not intentional. The government did not pursue the case. Which is understandable since you don’t want to take on an organisation of the UN’s standing and going against it could have serious diplomatic ramifications.

The above instances cannot make you help but wonder whether the ban was the government’s way of getting back at a news channel, which has often been critical of India.  Also, what makes the ban even more curious is it timing. According to Anmol Saxena, Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera English in India, the errors in the map were rectified immediately after the channel was served a show cause notice last September. So, why punish the channel now for something they did almost a year ago?

Often, distance brings along with it the most balanced perspective.  International media organisations, hence, assume all the more importance in India, where jingoism is being increasingly passed off as good reportage. While Al Jazeera definitely did err on this occasion, its explanation that the mistake was unintentional and the map was software generated sounds plausible enough. A slightly more tolerant approach on part of the government would have perhaps gone a long way in silencing Modi’s critics who claim press freedom in India has gone down after he has come to power.  After all, paranoia is the most natural symptom of insecurity – and a culture of bans suggests immense insecurity that no amount of chest beating about our great culture can conceal.