Monoply of VSNL!!!!!!.

[Npsingh123@aol.com]

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
In a message dated 11/8/00 9:18:47 AM Central Standard Time,
perdi420@yahoo.com writes:

<< As far as voice is concerned, it is possible that this may have to do with
 the guaranteed monopoly that VSNL has been granted to carry voice etc out of
 the country.  I know VSNL went to court for compensation when the current
 govt. tried to revoke the guarantee, but I did not follow the proceedings
 later on...  Any news on that?

 Thanx
 AP >>

Government's guaranteed monoply to VSNL for carrying voice!!!!!????  What
convoluted minds were behind that concept? There is that famous proverb
"Andha Baante Revrhi..." in the North which for the rest of the Indians means
that when the Blind man was asked to equally distribute sweets, he kept on
giving them to himself again and again. How can the Government give its own
organ i.e VSNL a monoply and then take itself to court for it. There is no
legal, economic or strategic justification for restricting private operators
from providing voice over net or cable internet and other evolving
technologies.

I believe that the basis of such policies  (as Mr. Inderjit Barua has pointed
out earlier) is the colonial mindset of our ruling elite who still govern
like they used to during the British Raj. Otherwise why else would government
stop people from owning walkie talkies till some 10 years ago. Why else is
photography prohibited only in airports in India. Why was it considered
treason to want to have a privately funded Radio Station till 5 years ago, if
not to suit the whims of governments that did not want to forego total
control of the media. Private banks have not been allowed to flourish in
India and those that did grow were quickly nationalized so that government
controlled the flow of capital. It is amazing that even peddlars in our
cities are either required to have a license or pay hafta to the local
police.

I suspect that liberalisation in India has been forced upon us by WTO and
World Bank and other foreign lenders and our own governments are at best
coming around to the ideas of free enterprise very reluctantly.
Liberalization today exists much more for deep pocketed foreign investors who
can pay crores upon crores of license fees while our own enterpreneurs are
still facing much the same problems they faced 20 years ago.

We need constitutional safegaurds against excessive and arbitrary regulation.

N.P. Singh


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the National Debate on System Reform.       debate@indiapolicy.org
Rules, Procedures, Archives:            ../debate/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------