The ongoing farmers’ agitation against the three new controversial laws related to agriculture sector seems to be changing in the confrontation of telecom companies. It has been reported that “Reliance Jio has accused the telecom regulator of intervening, alleging that competing companies – Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea deceive users of Jio to connect to their networks under the guise of supporting farmers.”
Amidst the continuous protests against the new agricultural laws, the farmers have decided to boycott the products of Jio.
In a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, TRAI, Jio has said that “both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea companies were running ‘unethical’ and ‘anti-competitive’ mobile number portability campaigns to capitalize on the existing farmer movement.”
According to the news, Jio said that “both companies are directly and indirectly involved in advancing allegations and false rumors of being an undue beneficiary of Reliance Jio’s agricultural laws.
Jio said in its letter, “Airtel and Vodafone Idea are pursuing a ‘vicious’ and ‘divisive’ campaign through their employees, agents and retailers.” These companies are defaming the company by deliberately calling Reliance Jio against the farmers and presenting themselves as farmer-friendly, for minor benefits like porting the numbers. At the same time, they are deliberately giving air to the opposition of the government.
However farmer unions have accelerated their current performance in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and many parts of Madhya Pradesh.
On Monday, some places were jammed for several hours due to the demonstration of the farmer and sitting on a fast. National Highway-8 connecting Rajasthan and Delhi was the worst affected.
Farmers surrounded government offices in Punjab and Haryana where a large number of protesters took out tractor-trolleys on the streets.
The performance of farmers can have a bad effect on the betterment of the economic front.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) says that “amidst the challenge of bringing the economy on the path of growth, we urge all stakeholders to find a way out of the current protests and arrive at a solution by mutual agreement”.
The CII says that the supply chain is already badly affected during the lockdown due to the Corona epidemic, and now that it was slowly improving, due to the peasant movement, it could be affected again
