Morung Express News
November 4
KOHIMA (MExN): The Signal Corps of the Indian Army would be taking over the operations of Telecommunications services in Nagaland, during the “interim period” before a Multi-National Company takes over the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) under an agreement with the Government of India, highly reliable sources told The Morung Express.
Latest information has pointed towards the Signal Corps of the Indian Army taking over the present telephone as well as cellular services provided by the BSNL in Nagaland for the interim period of what the sources said would be “around two years at the most”. The exact duration that the Signal Corps would be running telecommunication services in the State could not be confirmed.
It was also suggested that the army would also “off-load some few sensitive telephone and cell connections as precautions against infringement from external forces”. In this regard government telephones apart from private connections would be monitored, sources told this paper. The Government of India is understood to have begun processing the “necessary” formalities to facilitate the Army Signal Corps ‘managing’ telecommunication services in the State.
Meanwhile, highly placed sources told The Morung Express that an official questionnaire was dispatched from New Delhi ‘very recently’ to the concerned ‘authorities’ wherein it was mentioned that ‘if the army takes over BSNL’ what would be the ‘reaction’ of the armed forces and also the BSNL.
Leaders of students’ organization as well as political observers have voiced serious concern over this development in the backdrop of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act still in operation in Nagaland. The North East Students Organization (NESO) has termed the Indian government’s handing over the telecommunication services to be run by the Army as another means of strengthening the AFSPA to subjugate the indigenous people of the North East. “The review committee set up to review the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is nothing but a eyewash to hoodwink the people” a NESO leader told this paper. The implications of the army running telecommunications would mean that the people has virtually come under the control of a Police-state where even private family conversations would be monitored by the military considering that Nagaland is currently going through a chronic political unrest, a senior political observer said on condition of anonymity. “In the first place, telecommunications would be controlled at whim by the military, secondly, telephonic/cellular conversations would be monitored and there will be no privacy and finally the people would be controlled indirectly by the army” a student leader said, assuring that the matter would be taken up soon.
Meanwhile it is learnt that the BSNL on privatization would be taking charge of only 24 % of the actual operations while the MNC would be control 76% of it. Both the NESO and The Naga Students Federations had recently come out strongly against the BSNL being privatized and to that effect an agitation against the move had been slated on November 9. However there is also conflicting reports on whether the BSNL privatization plan and the army taking control of it for the interim period, is applicable only to Nagaland or the northeastern region as a whole.
