I thought it would be a good day when I woke up. The weather was pleasant, I nursed my morning tea, picked up the newspaper, kept the pillow on my sofa, and lay down on the soft cushion anticipating 30 minutes of peaceful reading. But what I saw in the paper almost made me spill my cup of tea over it. The Indian government, in its infinite wisdom, is apparently planning to announce a scheme on independence day to provide free mobile phones to all below poverty line (BPL) families, in order to enhance producivity and usher in a new era of economic development. Cost: Rs. 7,000 crores (approximately $1.27 billion)
The naysayers like me can spill tea or coffee over it, but the government of India (in its infinite wisdom) has put in a lot of thought into it. They knew that critics would scoff at the idea, because BPL families may not have the money to recharge their phones. To silence them, the Government of India will provide free talk-time worth Rs. 200 every month for all BPL families. Ha!
That said, the bigger issue for the government may not be the phone recharge, but the basic charging of the phone itself - in a country where electricity is not available in a good chunk of rural households.
The plan of action also involves sending messages to these phones extolling UPA government virtues and aam aadmi programs (those damn critics say that this is a populist measure aimed at a third term for the current circus). The critics are crazy because the bulk of BPL families don't know how to read or write. For all you know, they might see BPL in those texts multiple times and confuse it with BJP. In all this my BP is shooting up - aakhir UPA ki baap ka paisa hai kya? As tax payers, we are entitled to some answers.
No wonder the planning commission had earlier this year set an income of Rs.26 a day as the poverty benchmark. After all, we want to limit the number of phones given away free, don't we?
Meanwhile, the government is also in talks with service providers to make sure that the caller tunes are provided at a subsidized rate to BPL families. Now that was something I cooked up, but didn't it seem plausible in all this madness? Oh! Tughlaq was such an honorable man.
The naysayers like me can spill tea or coffee over it, but the government of India (in its infinite wisdom) has put in a lot of thought into it. They knew that critics would scoff at the idea, because BPL families may not have the money to recharge their phones. To silence them, the Government of India will provide free talk-time worth Rs. 200 every month for all BPL families. Ha!
That said, the bigger issue for the government may not be the phone recharge, but the basic charging of the phone itself - in a country where electricity is not available in a good chunk of rural households.
The plan of action also involves sending messages to these phones extolling UPA government virtues and aam aadmi programs (those damn critics say that this is a populist measure aimed at a third term for the current circus). The critics are crazy because the bulk of BPL families don't know how to read or write. For all you know, they might see BPL in those texts multiple times and confuse it with BJP. In all this my BP is shooting up - aakhir UPA ki baap ka paisa hai kya? As tax payers, we are entitled to some answers.
No wonder the planning commission had earlier this year set an income of Rs.26 a day as the poverty benchmark. After all, we want to limit the number of phones given away free, don't we?
Meanwhile, the government is also in talks with service providers to make sure that the caller tunes are provided at a subsidized rate to BPL families. Now that was something I cooked up, but didn't it seem plausible in all this madness? Oh! Tughlaq was such an honorable man.
