Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw blames UPA for treating BSNL like a 'cash cow'

Telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, while replying to questions in Lok Sabha during Question Hour on Wednesday, blamed the erstwhile UPA regime for diverting funds from BSNL and treating the company like a cash cow, which led to its near collapse.

At this, opposition members, especially from the Congress, objected to the minister's statement with party MP Manish Tewari asking the minister to substantiate his statement.

Vaishnaw made the comments while responding to a question by BJP's G.M. Siddeshwar, who sought to know whether the poor network connection of BSNL is one of the key reasons behind it losing customers and the measures being taken by the government to improve connectivity. Also read- Mahatma Gandhi's ideals must continue to guide actions in ensuring peace and stability around the world: Jaishankar

"BSNL went through a very bad phase of its life, primarily because of certain political parties, especially during the UPA Government, when a lot of funds from BSNL were diverted. The Prime Minister has approved a very large package of Rs 1,64,000 crore for the revival of BSNL... It will totally transform BSNL," the minister said in his reply amid protests from the Congress members.

He further informed the lower house that "BSNL is going to implement indigenously-developed 4G and 5G technologies stack. We should take pride in the country's engineers. When the Prime Minister gave this challenge to our engineers, our engineers stood up and developed the technologies stack end to end in line with Prime Minister's Make-in-India initiative. Today, the 4G and 5G technologies stack are made in India, designed in India, and developed in India. Today, it is recognised all over the world. That is the story of telecom."

The minister, while pointing to the opposition benches, said that those days are gone when "for certain people, BSNL was always a cash cow... Now, BSNL is going to revive in a very big way".

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