Freshly Brewed Security Threat

Amidst heavy tropical rain, I frantically searched for a local sim card of course with a set of valid documents. However, almost all shop barring none refused to have the stock and made some ridiculous excuses. Well, the place was in the vicinity of a 2 century old university, an otherwise busy market.

My search continued for the second time again in the evening with similar fate though this time I stretched my combing operation to cover few other nearby markets. I was almost returning empty handed had it not been a small shop at the temple side. 

I asked my industrialist nephew to get down and repeat the inquiry though I was not very confident. I was still behind the wheel waiting for him to say "no" before I press on throttle. We had a silver-lining there, my nephew was smiling covering his head with a tiny waterproof file cover.

I asked him twice on the noisy street to confirm whether it was actually there. Little relived now, I asked him for Airtel, he said only Vodafone. Alright, do you have a range to choose from so that we could go for a choice number. He had a few but very limited, Babu my companion chose a random number and we picked that packet.

I said we have Aadhar, Voter ID as our ID proofs. But the shop keeper refused to acknowledge any, saying for these cards ID proofs are not required. These are ready to use pre-validated sim cards, while opened the pouch I found the sim is already detached from its case. Then I came to know these sims are validated by the service provider itself through some in house voice call centers. This reminds me of the recent TOI article on the same issue how all the Telcos continue to issue sim cards without valid ID proofs in spite of being penalised by TRAI. The CAG unearthed this serious security issue which has far reaching consequences in a country that reels under sever terrorist threat.

In international airports in western countries, I have similar experience, buying calling cards/sim without any proof but in case of India its not only illegal but also a huge security threat. The threat perception in India is much larger and complex as compared to our western counterparts. Our country is so huge in size and population that its hardly possible to trace a number used for malicious activities. Think of a situation when a terrorist uses such a number and disappears all of sudden. 

If purpose of issuing such cards is to facilitate the needy migrants who wants to make urgent phone call to their nears and dears, why can't they use a public phone. Also who authorised these Telcos to enact a new law bye passing our parliamentary process. In my view if the errant Telcom Companies continue to indulge into such act they should rather be banned as mere penalising is not enough.

I would urge our PM to look into the matter on an urgent basis before things go out of control...........