Don’t Let Telecom Officials Go On Huawei-Sponsored Trip To China, RSS Affiliate Urges PM Modi

RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) Wednesday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) officials were violating the central civil services conduct rules by attending a conference paid for by Huawei beginning Thursday.

A team of DoT officials are scheduled to visit China to attend a conference on 5G sponsored by the Chinese telecom company on August 1-2, 2019. The SJM’s co-convener Dr Ashwani Mahajan has alleged in the letter to PM Modi that Huawei’s operations are a security threat to India.

“The entire top echelons of DOT are attending a conference paid for by Huawei, which together with other Chinese telecom companies, faces outright bans/ severe restrictions in countries like the US & Japan,” said Dr Mahajan in the letter.

“Even in India the operations of Huawei are not beyond suspicion, and is never investigated thoroughly,” he added.

The letter further stated that Chinese companies, including Huawei, were globally facing allegations that they ‘underbid’ projects and “position themselves and their establishment back home to snoop and enable them to shut remotely if required be.”

“The Chinese dominance in India’s telecommunication sector is very damaging. It is not only creating a security threat but are also killing opportunities for our indigenous players,” it stated.

Seeking PM’s intervention in the matter, Dr Mahajan said, “To attend this conference would produce bad optics and severely complicate decision making by Government of India and expose these officers to charges of doubtful integrity and promoting the interests of foreign companies at the cost of national security and indigenisation.”

The US has already banned Huawei over security concerns and Washington has been pressuring other countries to restrict the operations of the Chinese telecom firm.

India, however, is yet to take a call on whether it intends to place curbs on Huawei or allow the Chinese telecom equipment maker to participate in the upcoming 5G trials. Huawei has teamed up with Vodafone Idea to conduct 5G trials in India.―Business Today