Articles
Dr M.B Athreya and the Telecoms
Dt:26/4/21
Dr M.B Athreya and the Telecoms
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
Those were the decades of acute telephone famine since the mid 1940s to the 1990s which situation I characterized as,
“Appl apply, no reply”.
The reason was Nehruvian socialism which mandated that the government departments like P&T and the government’s Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) should occupy the commanding ( and facilitating) heights of the economy (and society) . Telephone other than for governments’ ( Union, States , PSUs) were for the benefit of capitalists, businessmen and the rich, held Nehruvian socialism. As the waiting list and waiting periods went on increasing , the monopoly supplier the P&T department ( later DOT, BSNL since 2000) went on pricing application forms , then demanding their validation by increasing amounts of deposits , and increasing rates and introducing lightning trunk calls at eight times normal rates and tatkal applications with a deposit of Rs. 40,000 ie, is methods to remove the garibs and not garibi. I have been waging a public campaign since the late 1960s memorializing political parties, interacting with MPs and giving public lectures . The theme was “ end monopoly, corporatize P&T/DOTs telecom services; let in private sector companies to compete with P&T/DOT ; and have regulation” .
2. The government was compelled to seek ways of ending the telephone famine. Its setup “ the Athreya Committee on Telecom Restructuring” in 1991. It was then that I came to know of the personality of Dr Mrityunjay Athreya as a management expert.
3. I presented the case to the Athreya Committee for ending government monopoly on supply of telecom and emerging IT services . He thoroughly and quickly appreciated my submission. His questions revealed his total understanding of the causes for telephone famine and what should be done to end that famine. Dr Athreya had to interact with among others the late Com. O. P Gupta , a seasoned, intelligent and formidable Communist Secretary General of the powerful National Federation of Telecom Employees Unions (NFTEU) which was ideologically and militantly opposed to corporatization & demonopolization. Dr Athreya handled him deftly. Com. O P Gupta, a friend of mine for many years ( I was an ex-communist and Minister Bahuguna used to address me as Com. Chowdary) told me that he was impressed by the professional conduct of Dr Athreya - respectful of contrary opinions , courteous to accusers even and the searching questions Dr Athreya put to the union men to bring out the unreasonableness of the unions opposition to restructuring and regime change for telecoms.
4. Dr Athreya Committee’s Report on Restructuring Telecoms and the government’s thinking on that Report paved the way for Prime Minister P.V Narasimha Rao government’s National Telecom Policy in 1994 (NTP-94) which was further improved by Prime Minister Sri Atal Behari Vajpay’s NTP-‘99 .
5. I became familiar with Dr M B Athreya’s erudition through his articles dealing with aspects of Sanatan Dharma in monthly journal, Tatvaloka . His short but clearly expressive articles are educative and informative. They are great value and so I gave a few gift subscriptions to my friends and relatives.
6. Dr Mrityunjay Athreya is one of the illustrious sons of Bharat . May he live a 100 years with a healthy body and a great mind in the company of the members of his family and may he continue to give the benefit of his knowledge of sanatana dharma in which he lives to the thousands of readers of tatvaloka and his innumerable friends and well-wishers. (697 words)
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