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In Case You Missed It

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DQI Bureau
New Update

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.

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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


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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

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