Tathagata Sathpathy, an Indian Member of Parliament and a member of the Biju Janata Dal, has written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the Department of Telecommunications and all Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members of Parliament, dissenting strongly against the TRAI consultation which threatens to split the Indian Internet into many Internets (read how), and most worryingly, introduces a licensing regime for Internet companies in India. Read the abridged version of the paper at http://tinyurl.com/TRAIpaper, and FAQs at http://tinyurl.com/TRAIfaqs. Sathpathy has supported the responses drafted by users at Reddit India (read it here), who have been leading the fight for Net Neutrality in India, and have even drafted a Net Neutrality law (read it here). The MP has sent the Reddit India response to TRAI, saying that he sees this TRAI consultation as a threat to his functioning as a representative, since he uses email, messaging, video calling and and cloud services to interact with his constituents and his staff, adding that "TRAI cannot control the internet by charging separately for services that are created by the very people who believe in the idea of free access to information and knowledge." The letter from Sathpathy, in full: To, Mr. Rahul Khullar, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, New Delhi Subject: Dissent letter regarding TRAI’s move to allow violation of Net Neutrality Dear Sir, I write to you as an everyday internet user. I use messaging apps to keep in contact with my staff, I use cloud services to prepare documents,…
