Communications and IT minister Arun Shourie did some tough talking on crucial issues in the telecom sector on his first day in office today. Steering clear of the controversy between WLL-mobile and cellphone operators, Shourie asked various operators, including PSUs, to strictly honour commitments made by them for activities like rural telephony. ‘‘Anybody who fails to honour commitments will have to give an explanation to the people and Parliament,’’ Shourie said. He warned of severe penalties. Shourie’s message to the sector was clear — the game will now have to be played by the rules. ‘‘Nobody will be allowed to use predatory practices.competition will have to be perpetuated.there would be no bar on any technology so long as there was no tilt favouring any segment,’’ he said. While refusing to say whether he would politically intervene for reducing telephone tariffs which have gone up after TRAI’s recent announcements, Shourie said ‘‘people have to learn to pay for services they use since otherwise quality and expansion of these services will suffer.’’ Responding to allegations against his ministry of being drawn into corporate lobbying, Shourie said corporates were known to do this and it was the job of the Government to keep itself above these pulls and pressures. At the same time, he said, he would follow an open-door policy and invite all sections of the industry to discuss issues openly and help in evolving sound policies. ‘‘The only tax industrialists will have to pay to meet me is to come with one bright idea every visit which will take the sector forward,’’ said Shourie. In his first interaction with the media, Shourie refused to be drawn into any controversial issue facing the sector. Known for his penchant for reforms, Shourie today played it safe by refusing to commit on whether the combination of his roles as disinvestment minister and communications minister meant that telecom PSUs like MTNL and BSNL would be up for sale soon. On his predecessor’s proposal to merge MTNL and BSNL, Shourie said he would wait for the report of the committee set up to go into the issue. On his reaction to political appointments made on boards of PSUs, Shourie said professional yardsticks rather than political considerations would dictate all future appointments. He, however, refused to take the bait on what he would do about the recent appointments on MTNL boards which included Monika Arora from BJP’s Yuva Morcha, Adhik Shirodkar, a former Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP and criminal lawyer, Ashwin Somnath Vyas, a medical representative and BJP president of north-east district of Mumbai, and Dr Jagdish Shettigar, a member of the PM’s Advisory Council. Asked about his immediate agenda for the telecom and IT sector, Shourie said all decisions would be taken with the sole objective of further growth and fair competition among all the players. In the IT sector, he said emphasis should be on developing the hardware sector. ‘‘India must make rapid strides in hardware, otherwise its success in the software sector could be endangered in the next 4-5 years,’’ Shourie said. For some sops for the hardware sector, Shourie said he would meet the new commerce minister, Arun Jaitley, and Finance Minister Jaswant Singh soon.
