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During my four decades of service in the then DoT and BSNL, I considered most strikes avoidable.

But if any strike is justified, it is the present one by BSNL employees against the delay in placing orders seeking tenders for expanding GSM cellular service.

Ever since welcome competition has been introduced in the telecom sector, BSNL has suffered seriously because of a paralysis in decision-making, covering both organisational and planning aspects.

While the senior officers were afraid of taking decisions because of threat of CBI enquiries and disciplinary proceedings on frivolous and technical grounds, and that too during the last years of their service, politicians have played havoc with the tendering process.

An advisor to the Prime Minister once even advised senior officers at a seminar that BSNL should concentrate only on the rural areas and sell the licence for cellular services to private operators, when it is clear to even an illiterate person that most of the growth in telecom is in wireless!

I believe that all the officers and employees should rise above their individual identities and exert pressure on the powers-that-be to ensure that the interests of millions of members of the public and about three lakh employees are not jeopardised.

A. Subbarao e-mail

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