UPA-II compared with French Queen Mary Antoinette for mobile offer

09 August, 2012

Very soon Indian government may introduce a scheme under which each BPL family in the country will be provided a mobile phone, equipped with a free local talktime worth 200 minutes. Reportedly the Prime Minister's Office is working with Planning Commission and telecom ministry to make this dream come true, which is aimed at connecting six million families or about 28 million people.

IF THINGS go as per plans, the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh would formally announce the scheme 'Har Hath mein Mobile' during his speech on 15 August, the Independence Day.

Analysts are seeing this proposed step by the UPA government as a move to attract voters prior to Lok Sabha elections in 2014. But the questions rise, whether the Congress led UPA-2 would be able to woo this class (BPL families) of voters, who are the worst hit due to high inflation. Apart from the inflation, corruption is another issue that the BPL class has understood well, thanks to the Anna movement.

Renowned food policy analyst Devinder Sharma compared the UPA government with French queen Mary Antoinette for its free mobile plan for BPL families. Notably the queen had supposedly said that if people can't eat bread, let them eat cake.

“This is a classic example of a mindset that has gone insane. In a country where 320 million people go to bed hungry, where more people die from diseases and squalor than anywhere in the world, the economic justification of gifting mobile phones reminds me of the French queen Mary Antoinette who said if people can't eat bread, let therm eat cake. What a disgrace,” posted Devinder Sharma on Facebook.

On social networking platforms people are also using the cruel quote of the French Queen to criticize the UPA government.

The scheme if rolled out will cost a whopping Rs. 7000 crores to the exchequer. Fifty percent of the cost will come from telecom department's Universal Service Obligation (USO) funds and rest of the cost will be borne by the bidder who gets the right to provide services.

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COMMENTS (2)

Guest

B.R. Sharma

The government has gone insane.. I wish the contract does not go to any Italian company.

0 Replies

Neha Kapoor

Though the move is not good, but it should not be criticized as BPLs could sell out their mobiles to buy food or medicines. I wish the government would give them costly smart phones.

0 Replies