Sunday, April 29, 2012

Vodafone Taxation Dispute In India And Censorship By Google

Vodafone taxation dispute in India has witnessed many ups and downs. Finally, it has reached at a stage where the Parliament of India has to intervene to conclusively settle the same.

Once bitten twice shy. This adage aptly applies to Indian government. Handed with a defeat at the Supreme Court level, now Indian government is planning to bring amendments in the tax law of India.

Simultaneously, Indian government has also introduced consolidated FDI policy of India 2012. The new FDI policy is clearly safeguarding Indian interests unlike the previous one that was specifically crafted to sub serve private interests.

The current budget session (April-May 2012) is going on and the proposed amendments may be placed in the first week of May 2012. Let us see how Vodafone and other telecom sector players would respond to these developments.

In the meantime censorship of controversial news by Google is in full force. Vodafone taxation related news is frequented censored in India these days. For instance, this post did not appear at all in the news while this post appeared and then disappeared within half an hour of its posting.

It is only after making the issue public that the latter post resurfaced. But this has become a standard practice of Google and Indian government for which neither is providing any explanation.

It seems either Google or Indian government is openly and blatantly abusing the controversial Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules 2011 of India.  In fact, a motion for annulment of intermediary guidelines has already been moved In the Rajya Sabha.

It is high time for both Google and Indian government to clarify their respective stands in this regard as civil liberties of Indians in cyberspace is clearly violated through these censorship activities.