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The decision of the Delhi government to ban all operations of taxi hailing service Uber and other app based services in the National Capital Territory of Delhi is reminiscent of the arrest of web portal Baazi.com CEO Avnish Bajaj in 2004.
Baazi (later to become part of Ebay) was an online trading portal. The Delhi Police arrested Bajaj as the website listed CDs for sale, that contained a video clip of two students of a well known Delhi school. The clip fell in the ambit of child pornography.
The Delhi Police had then argued that CEO Avnish Bajaj was also the administrator of the website and therefore liable to be arrested under the Information Technology laws applicable then. The NASSCOM called the arrest draconian. Bajaj’s lawyers said the video clip wasn’t available for viewing on the website and that the portal only provided a platform to buyers and sellers to interact and received a commission from any sales. Bajaj pleaded that the item was removed from its listings within 40-hours of being brought to the notice of the website. However, wheels of justice had been put in motion and the court case took its time to be decided.
Fears were expressed then, as they have been now, how such actions by state machinery could hurt foreign investments into India. There is some concern in the current government about the message the ban on Uber is likely to send to investors.
Services like Uber supplement Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election promise of more jobs. The service is an employment generator with its interesting business model. Its popularity, it is expected, can help bring down the number of private cars on congested city roads, particularly in places like Delhi and other big cities.
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The pressure on Delhi administration, and the Union Home Ministry, however, is to let people know that swift and strict action has been taken not just by the arrest of the alleged rapist but also on the ‘errant’ cab service. The situation is somewhat similar to the Baazi case where an IIT Kharagpur student was arrested for circulating the offending video clip while the CEO of the web portal was also arrested for listing of the clip on the website.
But the necessity of attracting investments and maintaining social order can work at cross purposes. The Rajnath Singh-headed Home Ministry, which has jurisdiction over Delhi Police, didn't want a repeat of protests in the wake of the 'Nirbhaya' rape case of December 2012. Other government departments, however, are likely to blame MHA if Uber shuts shop in India.
But beyond this is the issue of police verification of cab drivers or domestic servants. It remains unresolved. It was also in 2004 that two taxi drivers sexually assaulted, robbed and killed a 59-year-old Australian tourist Dawn Emelie Griggs near the Delhi Airport. Griggs, a writer, had hired a cab from the ostensibly safe pre-paid taxi service at the airport. The Delhi High Court sentenced the two to death in 2008.
The Griggs incident made the pre-paid taxi service at the airport safer and streamlined. Hopefully, the latest incident will serve to make services like Uber safer.
