Sex and sleaze shook the nation last month. There was no newspaper or TV
channel where the MMS scandal did not make headlines. The scandal generated a
huge difference of opinion among the masses. While the common man felt that it
was rightful to hold Avnish Bajaj, CEO of Bazee, responsible and arrest him,
Corporate India was quick to vote against the arrest of Bajaj.
Let us not get into this debate. There are enough specialists who are
actively lending their valued opinions to this controversy. Personally, this
dirty little MMS saga that managed to generate such a furor did not come to me
as a surprise. This was bound to happen. Revolutions invariably bring with them
such appendages. Let us look at the positive aspect of the scandal. I think the
entire incident should act as an eye opener to the Indian IT and communications
industry. There are so many lessons to be learnt from the incident. Let us try
and look at the MMS scandal as a learning experience.
There is this bright young boy from a humble middle class background, who had
made it to the Indian Institute of technology at Kharagpur, not just India's
premier technology institute, but a world-renowned one, with dreams to make it
big in the future. He was not been doing too badly as a student but that was
obviously not good enough to keep this IITian satisfied. He chose to make some
quick bucks by selling trash on the net. What an e-commerce site such as
bazee.com did was really bring out the entrepreneurial spirit in him. Technology
offerings today have created and will continue to create more people like him
and mind you, not every one of this new breed of technologically-savvy
entrepreneurs will sell sleaze on the net.
IBRAHIM AHMAD Government and police will always be under pressure to respond to popular sentiment and come down heavily on both direct and indirect offenders |
The adolescent boy and girl pair, again from a premier school in Delhi, acted
as a feeder to the IITian. They performed an act, which the boy chose to record.
The video was then circulated. In the entire process, the situation went out of
control. Technology offerings today is tempting people to do bold experiments
and there is nothing that will slow this down. The experiments may differ, but
they will continue to be bold and innovative.
The video clip prepared by a student from one of India's most-respected
schools, where children of the rich and famous go. The video found a place in
the local area network of India's most-respected technology institute, and was
finally marketed and sold on one of India's leading e-commerce sites. Surely,
technology is not likely to differentiate between ideas to take them ahead to
reach the masses.
While there has been a lot of opposition to the arrest of Bajaj, the fact
remains that India is a still a conservative country when it comes to subjects
like pornography. The government and the police will always be under immense
pressure to come down heavily on any individual, group or organization directly
or indirectly associated with such incidents. Popular sentiments are always
difficult to ignore. Smart organizations would use the scandal as a lesson and
be careful in the future by implementing systems and policies that would
discourage and prevent a repetition.
The Delhi police made a hasty move by arresting someone who actually
volunteered to help reach the real offenders. The thoughtless move on the part
of the police has generated a huge controversy for all the wrong reasons and has
once again put India on the world map as an unpredictable and unfriendly
business destination. The controversy should teach the Indian police force to
understand the nuances of cyber crime better and act in a more responsible
manner in future. It is a good time for the IT industry to take the necessary
steps to create more awareness among the IT cops, masses and the media. At the
same time, one can only hope that the MMS scandal would serve as a wake up call
to country's legal eagles to amend the existing the cyber laws.
The author is Editor of Dataquest IBRAHIM
AHMAD