[governance] Minister Sibal's comments vs India's WCIT position paper

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

Like many of you here I'm sure, I was considerably surprised by India's
submission to the WCIT - http://news.dot-nxt.com/itu/wcit/c21

It starts off by stating that it is based on multistakeholder consultation,
but that does not seem to be the case, based on several statements by
different industry organizations and civil society groups in India.

The possible situation we have here is that the DoT has circulated their
paper to a select set of people who are nominally industry or civil
society, rather than engage in any form of more public consultation.
Statements protesting these submissions are pouring in from several
powerful industry bodies besides from civil society groups that actively
track internet governance related issues in India.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/civil-society-industry-oppose-indias-plans-to-modify-itrs/article4124046.ece

The article further includes these quotes from Minister Sibal and from
India's top civil servant for telecom, Mr.Chandrashekhar.

---quote---
Mr. Sibal confirmed that while cyber security was an area of discussion
with the ITU, “*the ITU does not have any role in Internet governance*.”

According to him, either he or the Department will hold meetings on these
issues with the industry to further evolve India’s position.
Mr. Chandrashekhar further confirmed that similar to several global
national delegations, the government would include media and industry
experts as part of its delegation to Dubai
---end quote---

^ note the absence of civil society in the delegation .. but even if they
do include a broader cross section of industry, then the multiple strongly
worded comments by Indian industry associations (quoted in the article)
against the ITU gaining control of these will probably lead to a change in
India's position.   On the other hand, it is quite possible that India's
position will absolutely not change, and these statements above are simply
to mollify industry and civil society protests.

Thoughts, please?

--srs
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