Call Drop Prasad & The Ineffectiveness Of His Governance

Call Drop Prasad & The Ineffectiveness Of His Governance

Unlike several of his cabinet colleagues, RSS backed union cabinet minister for Communications & IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad, enjoys coming on TV and talking up a storm on how dynamic his ministry is.

It is a habit left over from his earlier party spokesperson avatar, when being inventive about everything regarding the BJP/NDA/RSS and broader Sangh Parivar fell to his lot, channel after news channel; and night after night.

But even so, he offers little beyond bluster about taking ‘stern action’, jowls a quiver and spectacles glinting mightily, and how ‘it is not my job to find towers’.

There is no case from ‘Call Drop Prasad’ of informing the public on what he is doing to resolve the problem, apart from a lame TRAI plan to dock the mobile operators and crediting a few rupees to the users afflicted three times or more, or Rs. 3 a day at  best, or is it worst.

This, while it does nothing by way of solution, is nevertheless being stoutly and legally contested by the operators. Fact is, the operators, both in the private and public sectors, are finding it difficult to make money on ‘voice’, due to the competition, and the cost of putting up and maintaining communication towers all over the country.

With the steady increase in the use of smartphones and broadband, the advent of 4 G too, operators earn much more from their data services including music, multimedia visuals/movies/youtube etc.. This, consumed over computers and smart phones pays well.

The problem of call drops can be solved with government help/incentives to the private operators for more communication towers. The help should include offering them sites on government land and buildings. Shouting it isn’t my problem is not good enough, minister Prasad, because, in the end, it is.

When it comes to government owned MTNL and BSNL, both loss-making to the tune of some Rs. 8,000 crores, when this government took over, despite lower consumer prices - some 4,144 new towers have indeed been added, between April-November 2015.

There is, of course, legitimate concern from people living near urban mobile tower sites, because of their propensity to spread cancer causing radiation. Also, since historically many towers were put up to improve ‘coverage’ illegally, on private roof tops and the like, mainly by private operators in a quest for greater market share, they have had to be shut down.

But, even now, as many as 34,460 mobile tower sites belonging to the privates like Aircel, Idea, Vodafone, Airtel, Tata, Telenor, Reliance Communications, Videocon, Quadrant and Shyam Teleservices, were found to be defective. And about half (16, 962), have been set right under this government’s watch. Another 17,498 await repairs. This information was given by Call Drop Prasad in parliament after opposition demands, but he did not think it necessary to tell the public .

On TV, it is Prasad’s oddly syntaxed lawyerese, whether delivered in English or Hindi, always hovering on the edge of bombast, delivered with a sweet smile. And it is further leavened with his considerable Bihari political good sense. That he refuses to talk substance to the suffering public is probably because he thinks they won’t understand such complex matters.

Still, Prasad seems well satisfied with himself, implying so are his other cabinet colleagues, and that is what matters to him.

It is perhaps symptomatic of this government that it feels no urge to be particularly accountable, certainly against any objective yardstick, comparing itself instead, every time, to how the UPA always did worse.

Meanwhile, the janata  around the country, and certainly in the capital city of Delhi, can barely hear themselves talk. We all have arcane methods to find hotspots at home: on the veranda, kitchen, staircase, windowsill, toilet, sundry corners. Likewise, in the office. From such hotspots, a call can go through and endure, provided you hold still, believing your phone is made of nitroglycerin, and speak with great enunciation.

Thank God, many think, for Whatsapp and text messaging/email, or there would be little mobile telephonic communication, muffled, fading, or otherwise. Inside moving capsules like cars, the metro-platforms, tunnels and elevated sections included, or buses; long stretches of dense city,  let alone sparsely populated and bucolic countryside, there is no connectivity at all.

Not to worry, since there’s no hope. Go watch something on your phone perched near a hotspot and make your operator happy. Somebody ought to be, and don’t tell me what you’ve thought to watch. There are, believe it, statistics on that too.

For: The Quint

(748 words)

December 22^nd, 2015

Gautam Mukherjee