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The President's dissatisfaction with the government's initiative in resolving the telecom tangle is obviously a result of his concern that a government without a mandate is taking major decisions. As a matter of principle, the President's concern is entirely understandable. It is nobody's case that a caretaker government should formulate policy. But the government's action needs to be viewed in its proper context. As pointed out by government officials, the telecom initiative is a continuation of policies which were initiated long before the fall of Vajpayee government.
The objective is clearly to find some way out of the impasse created by the private operators' inability to pay the inordinately high licence fees, and the attempt at a solution has been widely welcomed. The decision is, hardly a political matter-it should rather be seen as a response to a situation where the country's telecom policy was deadlocked. Under the circumstances, it would be insensitive to say that operators would have no optionbut to wait till a new government is formed, particularly in view of the importance of telecommunications. Having said that, it is becoming increasingly clear that some consensus needs to be built up about what decisions can be taken by an interim government, and what should be left to a new government. This is important given the fact that short-lived coalition governments are increasingly becoming a fact of life. It needs to be ensured that some way needs to be agreed upon to insulate the continuation of policy decisions or the resolving of bottlenecks in policy implementation from frequent changes of government. In the final analysis, it needs to be remembered that the fight for economic growth is every bit as important as the fight for securing the nation's borders.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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