When
ICP Asks Where
Aakash2 Made,
Indian PR
Pushes Back,
No ITU
Answer
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 28 --
When India's
Ambassador
Hardeep Singh
Puri
held an event
in the UN on
Wednesday
about the
Aakash2 tablet
computer,
which the
Indian
government
aims to
procure for
over 200
million school
children,
Inner City
Press
attended.
But it assumed
that the issue
of parts of
the tablet
being
manufactured
outside of
India would be
asked and
answered, most
probably by
the Indian
media
which had been
reporting on
the issue.
In
typical UN
fashion,
however, a
question and
answer session
began and was
almost over
without any
raising of the
"elephant" (or
in
this case, the
motherboard)
in the room.
So
Inner City
Press asked
two questions:
what is the
response to
the
motherboard
controversy,
and what does
Datawind CEO
Suneet Singh
Tuli, and
separately the
government of
India, think
of the UN
system's
International
Telecommunications
Union Internet
regulation
plan, to be
discussed in
December 3 to
14 in Dubai?
Hardeep
Singh
Puri first
noted that
Inner City
Press always
"finds the
controversy."
It wasn't hard
-- people from
India, the US
and
elsewhere
e-mailed Inner
City Press the
many stories
and shifting
governmental
responses.
Then
Hardeep Singh
Puri
emphasized
that he, and
not the Indian
government,
set up the
event. But
didn't the
government
make a massive
order of
the Aakash2?
It
seems clear
that if the US
government
made such an
order of goods
manufactured
outside the
US, it could
be a story,
manufactured
or
not. Hardeep
Singh Puri
alluded to a
"conspiracy
theory"
of why it was
covered by
seemingly
unconnected
media, and
urged Inner
City Press to
investigate
it. On an
Aakash2?
Neither
he
nor Suneet
Singh Tuli
even purported
to answer the
ITU Internet
regulation
question. We
will continue
on this. Watch
this site.
Footnote:
On November 26
as another
part of its
last week as
Security
Council
president,
India hosted a
concert in the
UN including
the Shahi
Qawwals from
the Holy
Shrine of
Khwaja
Moinuddin
Chishty from
Ajmer.
Inner City
Press attended,
noting UN
officials
there from
Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson to
Vijay Nambiar.
(Ban Ki-moon
attended the
event on the
Aakash2, and
apparently
received one.)
The music
was amazing.
And so it goes
at the UN.
, 
