Blackmail and sabotage

For the umpteenth time, telephone users in the country have been rendered helpless before a recalcitrant telecommunications staff. It is difficult to count how many times the employees in this sector have resorted to disruptionist tactics in the recent past. This time nobody is officially on strike but the effect is much the same 8212; it is almost impossible to get through on the STD or ISD circuit. The departmental authorities pretend that they have no clue as to how or why telephones have been rendered into useless showpieces. What is known is that some employees who are not happy with the corporatisation of the department of telecom services DTS are on work-to-rule agitation. The pertinent question is why should telephone services be affected when employees work to rule? As it transpires, the villains of the piece are some officers of MTNL who have access to certain key passwords and have immobilised the digital exchanges in Delhi and Mumbai which account for the heaviest traffic. Surely, it is notdifficult to identify the saboteurs and punish them for their perfidy, which is costing the nation so heavily. The question, of course, is does the Union minister of Communications have the necessary will to do this? That his policy of placating his staff has miserably failed goes without saying.

In their enthusiasm to oppose the privatisation of the telecom sector, it is doubtful whether the erring employees even realise that their agitation only strengthens the case for privatisation. The utterly irresponsible manner in which they have been behaving, in fact, proves the point that there is an urgent need for a crackdown. But who will bell the cat? The NDA government cannot escape the responsibility if it is serious about instilling a sense of discipline into the staff with a view to improving the services and reducing the cost the consumer has to bear. Since Ram Vilas Paswan8217;s tactics of adopting the line of least resistance has not yielded the desired results, he should either adopt a no-nonsense approach or, if he can do no better, give way to someone more suited to the task. There are no softer options. A confrontation can be avoided only if the government is ready to put its whole plan to corporatise the telecom sector on hold for an indefinite period. Needless to say, the government cannot dothis without putting its whole reform process in jeopardy and seriously undermining the reform process now underway in other key sectors of the economy.

This leaves the government with some tough options. It cannot afford to have frequent strikes which catch telephone users unawares. The only way out then would be to settle the matter once and for all and punishing the guilty ones who have surreptitiously resorted to disrupting the STD and ISD networks. This will certainly invite the wrath of the powerful unions allied to these departments and the government will have to face them. This may entail some amount of hardship for the consumers, who will have to put up with disruptions in the telecom services for a few days. But, in the end, it would be for the best. It is far better to have a disciplined staff manning telephone exchanges rather than cantankerous ones who are ready to agitate at a moment8217;s notice. Let this strike be a test for the government8217;s determination to bring a semblance of order in the functioning of the telecom sector.