The NDA government will not compromise on net neutrality as long as it is in power, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The minister was replying to a calling attention motion moved by Trinamool Congress spokesperson Derek O’Brien on the issue, which saw members across party lines unite in favour of keeping the Internet freely accessible. They also questioned the motives of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for initiating a suo motu consultation on net neutrality apparently at the behest of telecom majors. Several members also used the opportunity to voice personal grievances against telecom service providers.
“The government stands for ensuring non-discriminatory access to the Internet for all citizens, and the current debate on net neutrality should be seen from this perspective, while resolving the issues harmoniously with constitutional and economic principles. The government agrees with the viewpoint that blocking and deliberately slowing down/speeding up of lawful content on the Internet should not be allowed, and customers should have unrestricted access to all lawful content on the Internet,” Prasad said.
Earlier, calling the government’s attention to the contentious issue, O’Brien dismissed Prasad’s statement as something akin to a “Wikipedia entry on the Internet and Digital India”. He also took the government to task over the TRAI’s decision to make public the email addresses of 10 lakh people, who had written to the regulator in favour of net neutrality. The addresses were eventually taken down following public outcry, but only after they remained online for 36 hours, he said.
“The BJP is very good with trolls. Sometime back, a BJP leader told me, we created the social media now it is trying to hit us back. If the matter is not dealt with, it will hit you back like an Australian boomerang,” he said, taking a dig at the ruling coalition’s online prowess — something that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is said to be very passionate about.
The net neutrality issue was also raised in the Lok Sabha recently by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
On Tuesday, Congress’s M V Rajeev Gowda, trying to drive home the point that net neutrality was essential for all sections of society, gave the example of a net savvy farmer who, during a consultation with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, urged the government to use Google maps to assess crop damage and inform affected farmers through WhatsApp.
He also raised doubts about repeated assertions by Prasad that the government was the last word on policy matters, asking if that stance compromised TRAI’s independence as a regulatory body. Prasad gave a strong rebuttal to that query by pointing out that the TRAI Act had been brought in 1997 — when the UPA was in power — and the relevant section of the law, which gives government the authority to decide on policy matters, had been a part of it from its inception.
Cutting across party lines, members equated net neutrality with the Constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and expression and asked whether the government would consider bringing a legislation to give it a sound basis.
Prasad said the government would take a call on the matter after TRAI comes out with its recommendations. He also made the government’s displeasure known at the statement of the TRAI chairman that the controversy was the result of a tussle between two corporates. “Regulators should avoid public statements; they should speak through their recommendations and reports,” he said.<!–:–><!–:en–>The NDA government will not compromise on net neutrality as long as it is in power, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The minister was replying to a calling attention motion moved by Trinamool Congress spokesperson Derek O’Brien on the issue, which saw members across party lines unite in favour of keeping the Internet freely accessible. They also questioned the motives of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for initiating a suo motu consultation on net neutrality apparently at the behest of telecom majors. Several members also used the opportunity to voice personal grievances against telecom service providers.
“The government stands for ensuring non-discriminatory access to the Internet for all citizens, and the current debate on net neutrality should be seen from this perspective, while resolving the issues harmoniously with constitutional and economic principles. The government agrees with the viewpoint that blocking and deliberately slowing down/speeding up of lawful content on the Internet should not be allowed, and customers should have unrestricted access to all lawful content on the Internet,” Prasad said.
Earlier, calling the government’s attention to the contentious issue, O’Brien dismissed Prasad’s statement as something akin to a “Wikipedia entry on the Internet and Digital India”. He also took the government to task over the TRAI’s decision to make public the email addresses of 10 lakh people, who had written to the regulator in favour of net neutrality. The addresses were eventually taken down following public outcry, but only after they remained online for 36 hours, he said.
“The BJP is very good with trolls. Sometime back, a BJP leader told me, we created the social media now it is trying to hit us back. If the matter is not dealt with, it will hit you back like an Australian boomerang,” he said, taking a dig at the ruling coalition’s online prowess — something that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is said to be very passionate about.
The net neutrality issue was also raised in the Lok Sabha recently by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
On Tuesday, Congress’s M V Rajeev Gowda, trying to drive home the point that net neutrality was essential for all sections of society, gave the example of a net savvy farmer who, during a consultation with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, urged the government to use Google maps to assess crop damage and inform affected farmers through WhatsApp.
He also raised doubts about repeated assertions by Prasad that the government was the last word on policy matters, asking if that stance compromised TRAI’s independence as a regulatory body. Prasad gave a strong rebuttal to that query by pointing out that the TRAI Act had been brought in 1997 — when the UPA was in power — and the relevant section of the law, which gives government the authority to decide on policy matters, had been a part of it from its inception.
Cutting across party lines, members equated net neutrality with the Constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and expression and asked whether the government would consider bringing a legislation to give it a sound basis.
Prasad said the government would take a call on the matter after TRAI comes out with its recommendations. He also made the government’s displeasure known at the statement of the TRAI chairman that the controversy was the result of a tussle between two corporates. “Regulators should avoid public statements; they should speak through their recommendations and reports,” he said.एनडीए सरकार काळ ताकद आहे म्हणून निव्वळ तटस्थ तडजोड करणार नाही, दूरसंचार मंत्री रविशंकर प्रसाद यांनी मंगळवारी राज्यसभेत सांगितले.
<P> मंत्री पक्ष ओळी ओलांडून सदस्य मुक्तपणे उपलब्ध इंटरनेट ठेवण्याचे नावे होणे पाहिले जो मुद्दा, वर तृणमूल काँग्रेसचे प्रवक्ते डेरेक ओब्रायन यांनी हलविले एक कॉल लक्ष गती उत्तर देताना ते बोलत होते. ते देखील वरवर पाहता दूरसंचार महत्त्वपूर्ण कंपन्यांचा समावेश आहे, च्या हुकूम निव्वळ तटस्थ एक suo मॉटू सल्ला सुरू भारत (ट्राय) दूरसंचार नियामक प्राधिकरण हेतू प्रश्न विचारले. अनेक सदस्य देखील दूरसंचार सेवा पुरवठादार कंपन्यांनी विरुद्ध वैयक्तिक तक्रारी आवाज संधी वापरली. </ P>
<P> “सरकार सर्व नागरिकांना इंटरनेट नसलेल्या भेदभाव प्रवेश सुनिश्चित याचा अर्थ, आणि घटनात्मक आणि आर्थिक तत्त्वांनुसार harmoniously प्रश्र्नांवर तर निव्वळ तटस्थ चालू वादविवाद, या दृष्टीकोनातून पाहिले पाहिजे. सरकारने परवानगी देऊ नये अवरोधित करणे आणि मुद्दाम / मंद होत इंटरनेट वर काहीही करण्यास मुक्त सामग्री अप भरधाव असल्यास कोणाबरोबर, सहमत, आणि ग्राहकांना इंटरनेट वर सर्व आम्ही काहीही करण्यास मुक्त सामग्री प्रतिबंधित प्रवेश असावा, “प्रसाद यांनी सांगितले. </ p>
<P> तत्पूर्वी, वाद समस्या सरकारने लक्ष कॉलिंग, ओब्रायन एक “इंटरनेट आणि डिजिटल भारत विकिपीडिया नोंदणी” समान काहीतरी म्हणून प्रसाद विधान फेटाळून लावली. त्यांनी निव्वळ तटस्थ नावे नियामक पत्र लिहिले होते, 10 लाख लोक, ईमेल पत्ते सार्वजनिक करणे ट्राय या निर्णयाचा जाब सरकारला घेतला. पत्ते अखेरीस सार्वजनिक तक्रार खालील खाली घेतले, पण ते 36 तास ऑनलाइन राहिले फक्त नंतर होते, असे ते म्हणाले. </ p>
<P> “भाजप सिनेमाची सुरवात अतिशय उत्तम आहे. कधीतरी परत, एक भाजप नेते सोशल मीडिया हे आता परत आम्हाला दाबा करण्याचा प्रयत्न करीत आहे निर्मीत, मला सांगितले. प्रकरणाच्या केले नाही, तर ती एक ऑस्ट्रेलियन दुस-यावर केलेली कारवाई आपल्यावरच उलटणे, जसे आपण परत दाबा होईल, “तो निर्णयाची युती ऑनलाइन पराक्रम येथे खणा आहे घेत म्हणाला -. पंतप्रधान नरेंद्र मोदी खूप तापट असल्याचे सांगितले जाते की काहीतरी </ p>
<P> निव्वळ तटस्थ मुद्दा देखील काँग्रेसचे उपाध्यक्ष राहुल गांधी यांनी नुकताच लोकसभा मध्ये जमा होते. </ P>
<P> मंगळवारी, काँग्रेस एम राजीव गौडा, निव्वळ तटस्थ समाजातील सर्व घटकांना आवश्यक होते की घरी बिंदू चालविण्यास प्रयत्न, कर्नाटक मुख्यमंत्री Siddaramaiah यांनी एक योजना दरम्यान, केंद्र सरकारला केली जो, निव्वळ जाणकार शेतकरी उदाहरण दिले पीक नुकसानीचा अंदाज आणि WhatsApp माध्यमातून शेतकऱ्यांसाठी माहिती करण्यासाठी Google नकाशे वापरण्यासाठी. </ p>
<P> त्यांनी सरकारने भूमिका नियामक मंडळ म्हणून ट्राय स्वातंत्र्य तडजोड हे विचारून, धोरणात्मक बाबींमध्ये गेल्या शब्द होते की प्रसाद यांनी वारंवार मालिकेच्या बद्दल शंका उपस्थित केला. संयुक्त पुरोगामी आघाडी सत्तेवर असताना – – प्रसाद ट्राय कायदा 1997 मध्ये आणण्यात आले होते की बाहेर दिशेला त्या प्रश्नाला मजबूत खंडन दिला आणि सरकारी धोरण वस्तू वर ठरविण्याचा अधिकार देते जे नियमशास्त्राचे संबंधित विभाग, केले होते एक स्थापना ते भाग. </ p>
<P> पक्ष लाईन्स बोगदा, सदस्य भाषण व अभिव्यक्ती स्वातंत्र्य घटनात्मक हमी जाळे तटस्थ equated आणि सरकार एक आवाज आधार देण्यासाठी कायदे चालना विचार होईल की नाही ते विचारले. </ P>
<P> प्रसाद ट्राय शिफारशी बाहेर येतो सरकारी विषयावरील कॉल करणार असल्याचे त्यांनी सांगितले. त्यांनी वाद दोन कार्पोरेट कंपन्या दरम्यान एक झगडा परिणाम होता की, ट्रायचे अध्यक्ष स्टेटमेंट येथे ओळखले सरकारच्या नाराजी केले. “रेग्युलेटर जाहीर विधाने टाळावे; ते त्यांच्या शिफारसी आणि अहवाल माध्यमातून बोलावे, “तो म्हणाला. </ p><!–:–>