Arvind Sawant (70) is easily one of the most articulate MPs of the Shiv Sena (UBT). This south Mumbai parliamentarian stood solidly behind Uddhav Thackeray when there was a split in the party following the defection of Eknath Shinde and his group. A former Union minister, Sawant has come up the hard way through the trade union route. He has been leading the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) employees’ union for the past several years. He does his homework and is known to be a tough negotiator. He spoke to S Balakrishnan about the plight of MTNL. Excerpts from an interview:
Of late there have been rumours that the Union government will shut down MTNL.
I will not be surprised if the government does that. Once a vibrant organisation, MTNL is today on ventilator. In the 1980s there were about 60,000 employees, today it has only around 1,200, including officers. Most likely the government may merge MTNL with BSNL. It is a sad state of affairs. Once every household and office had at least one landline provided by MTNL. The number of landlines in Mumbai was 25 lakh in 1986. As of May 31, 2023, it is only 2.94 lakh. The service was good. Later other products like Garuda and Dolphin mobiles were launched. Its internet connectivity was one of the best. It’s all history now.
What is the principal reason for this downfall?
The present government, in the past nine years of its tenure, has been systematically strangulating the organisation. Once there were lakhs of landline connections in Mumbai. The Nigam’s areas of operation, apart from Greater Mumbai, included Navi Mumbai, Thane, Panvel, Uran etc. But the government forced the staff to opt for a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) on the specious ground that that it was the only way to revive the organisation. But the result was disastrous. Apart from this the bogey of the 2G scam diverted the ministry’s attention. Nothing came out of the controversy. But the damage was done. Also Sukh Ram, as telecommunication minister, took decisions which were not in the best interest of the Nigam. The organisation, which once turned a profit of Rs10,000 crore, was financially emaciated just like BSNL which was denied permission to launch 3G and 4G for several years even as private players made a killing. No concrete steps were taken by the present government in Delhi for the past nine years to revive MTNL and BSNL. It was a deliberate strategy to destroy these organisations to help private players. I am not opposed to the entry of private entities into the telecom sector. There should be healthy competition. But the government should have given PSUs autonomy and a level playing field.
The government says it has no funds to infuse into MTNL. Please comment.
It is a white lie. The organisation has several assets that can be monetised. For example, in Borivli alone it has 23 acres of unencumbered land. Why can’t that be auctioned? It will fetch over Rs1,000 crore. BSNL floated a tender for 4G spectrum, which was bagged by a Chinese company. Since it was a Chinese firm the deal was not allowed to go through. However, a private player has a tie up with a Chinese company using the Dubai route. That has been permitted.
How can MTNL, or BSNL for that matter, survive with so much hostility from this government?
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