Friday, Jan 31, 2003
Friday, Jan 31, 2003 |
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By Our Special Correspondent
Mr. Shourie said, "these allegations that the Government can be moved by corporate houses should be eradicated. These are false allegations. Such allegations have not stood the test of scrutiny in the disinvestment sector... there should not be any occasion for such allegations." Nonetheless, he urged the media not to read any message in the divestment of charge from Mr. Mahajan during the swirl of corporate lobbying in the telecom sector and promised to carry forward the work done by the deposed Minister who he described as "dynamic". "These decisions are made by random factors such as needs of the party and assessment of senior leaders. I will do effectively whatever responsibility is given to me," he said. He was noncommittal on whether Mr. Mahajan's policies would be followed. "I would like to get more details before saying anything but decisions for various issues must have been made after due consideration." However, notwithstanding Mr. Shourie's clinical praise for his predecessor, it is understood that the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had reached a judgment that Mr. Mahajan had mishandled the crucial Ministry. By choosing to ask Mr. Shourie to head the Ministry of Communications and IT, he wants to send out a message that things would be done differently in this key sector. Mr. Shourie also warned of severe penalties for the non-fulfilment of commitments made by either private players or the Public Sector Units for activities such as rural telephony. No commitment should be written off whatsoever. Any non-fulfilment of commitment should attract severe penalties and all contenders should hold on to their commitments made while procuring licences, be it for cellular or basic telephony. The Minister also enumerated the basic ground rules that would be followed during his tenure. The Government would dissuade predatory pricing but would be open to the introduction of all technologies. In other words, there would be a limit to the free fall in telecom prices and no company would be allowed to lure customers by charging below cost prices. On technology, Mr. Shourie said, "India has a large room for everyone and no steps should be taken to block technology". He was indicating that the Government would not repeat the mistake of opting for one technology. In the past, the Government had allowed only Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) for cellular operations. It required hectic lobbying and strenuous efforts before Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) was allowed. On the corporate war in the phone sector, Mr. Shourie said: "An issue which could not be resolved by Mr. Mahajan for such a long time, can't be resolved within hours. I am open to meeting anyone, be it industrialists or analysts to learn more and more about the issue but it will not be fair for me to comment anything without knowing it in details.'' He was reluctant to get embroiled in transfer postings of the postal and telecom bureaucracy. Interacting with officials, he indicated that he would prefer officials to finalise equipment-related orders.
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