Column by Virag Gupta- National interest ignored due to lack of coordination between the center and states | Column by Virag Gupta: National interest ignored due to lack of coordination between the center and states

Virag Gupta, Supreme Court lawyer

In our childhood, our uncle used to tell us the story of two foolish disciples who, in the name of service, divided the feet of their Guru. But when the disciples started chopping off the feet of the Guru with an axe after a quarrel over a small matter, Guru Maharaj had to run away to save his life.

A similar situation exists in our country, where due to the growing animosity between the Centre and the opposition states, the constitutional system is being torn apart and important issues related to national interest are being ignored. In the backdrop of growing unrest in India and anger erupting on the streets, it is important to examine 6 major aspects.

1. Crisis in neighbouring countries: The three major aspects of public discontent in the coups in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh are also visible in India. Growing inequality in the new economic system. Spread of ultra-nationalism and fanaticism among unemployed youth through social media. Anger of the crowd on the streets against the governments that have failed to meet quick expectations in the era of mobile and Whatsapp.

2. The Constitution is crumbling: The sharp comments of the judges in the Kolkata and Maharashtra cases clearly show that the police, administration and hospital structure in the states have collapsed. Instead of removing injustice and improving governance, politicians are doing politics even on serious matters like rape. Instead of punishing the culprits, the Constitution is crumbling due to CBI investigations in high profile cases and hearings in the Supreme Court and institutional decline of district courts.

3. Devastation of economy due to e-commerce: Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement about the illegal activities of Amazon and foreign e-commerce companies clearly shows that instead of leading the new revolution of AI, our country has become a follower and is stuck in the blind tunnel of colonialism. Despite evidence of illegal lobbying, tax evasion and violation of law, the government’s lethargy against e-commerce companies is leading to bankruptcy of crores of people.

4. Google’s monopoly: In America, strict laws were made in 1890 and then in 1914 to stop the monopoly of companies. Google, which is given the status of Mahaguru in India, has been exposed for its illegal activities and criminality in America.

Google has paid trillions of dollars to companies like Apple and Samsung to increase the dominance of its search engine, web-browser, Google Ads and Android operating system. It is worth mentioning that since there is no record of such payments in India, these companies are evading trillions of rupees of GST and corporate tax in India.

5. Crisis of indigenous industries and startups in India: The mother of Kamala Harris, the next presidential candidate in America, is of Indian origin. Most of the tech companies are also run by Indians. Judge Mehta, who gave the verdict against Google, is also of Indian origin. After this verdict, Google may have to pay a heavy fine along with giving full information to the US Justice Department and FTC. Apart from this, Google can be divided into many parts to end the monopoly. The interesting thing is that apart from Google, companies like Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple are also adopting many unfair measures in countries like India. Due to the failure of the government to stop their monopoly, the development of indigenous industries and startups is being blocked and the government treasury is suffering a huge loss due to tax evasion.

6. Race to take over governments: These companies registered in America coordinate with the American governments. In the last elections, Meta and other companies supported Biden against Trump. This time Elon Musk of Twitter i.e. X is openly supporting Trump.

In countries like India, tech companies promote divisive forces through social media to escape the purview of law. They are also hijacking the electoral process in India along with tax evasion, cyber crime, data theft.

It is sad and unfortunate that these important issues are not being debated in Parliament and the Supreme Court. If strict control over foreign tech companies is not put in place through concrete laws and effective regulators, both the economy and the banking system can collapse.

It is sad and unfortunate that important issues are not being debated in Parliament and the Supreme Court. If strict control over foreign tech companies is not put in place through concrete laws and effective regulators, both the economy and the banking system can collapse.

(These are the author’s own views.)