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PM's concern for security 'freezes' Sankhya Vahini

George Iype in Hyderabad

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is eager to scrap the controversial Sankhya Vahini project, thanks to the bogey of non-transparency and security concerns raised by the Rashtraiya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS leaders. The RSS is miffed with the way the lucrative, multi million dollar high data network contract has been awarded to a new, untested America-based firm.

But the National Democratic Alliance, or NDA, government is holding on to the project, terming it a harbinger of information technology revolution in the country. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, whose Telugu Desam Party extends support from outside to the government, has threatened that scrapping Sankhya Vahini would be “politically disastrous”.

Sources in the AP CM’s office disclosed that Vajpayee’s lieutenant and Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan met Naidu recently to convey a request. The PM had apparently indicated that Naidu should not insist on the project because it has been severely criticised by opposition parties and the RSS leaders.

Mahajan explained to Naidu that it is not pressure from the RSS and opposition parties alone that bothers Vajpayee. A number of security agencies in the country, especially the Research and Analysis Wing, have urged the government to study “the security concerns” that the Sankhya Vahini project raises.

For instance, in the United States, all gigabit networks are sponsored and managed by the State Department of Defence because of the security angle involved in such networks. Therefore, the Sankhya Vahini should not be allowed to take off without re-examining the project in its entirety, the government has been counselled.

In fact, Mahajan is said to have pleaded with Naidu that he should permit the government to put the Sankhya Vahini project “in the cold storage for the time being”.

But Naidu, who played the key role in clinching the high-tech data network in collaboration with the world-famous, Carnegie Mellon University of the United States in 1998, has spurned Vajpayee's request.

For him, Sankhya Vahini has become a prestige issue for three reasons:

• One, it was he who convinced Vajpayee in 1998 to go in for Sankhya Vahini when the former was the vice-chairman of the IT taskforce.
• Two, Naidu is banking on the project for implementing his much-publicised village-level computerisation programme in Andhra Pradesh.
• Three, pressure from Naidu’s two US-based high-tech friends, Dr Raj Reddy, the Herbert A. Simon University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics in the School of Computer Science at the CMU and Dr V S Arunachalam, a distinguished service professor at the Robotics Institute of the CMU.

Dr Reddy is the chairman of IUNet, a subsidiary of the CMU, which has clinched the high-speed data network project. Other equity holders are the Indian government’s Department of Telecom Services, the information technology ministry and the human resources development ministry. Dr Arunachalam is a director on the IUNet board and a former scientific advisor to India's defence minister.

Last month, when Sankhya Vahini sparked a contentious debate in Parliament, Dr Arunachalam flew in from the United States to meet Naidu. He pleaded with the latter to take up the issue directly with Vajpayee.

This prompted Naidu to write to Vajpayee, reminding him that the project should not be scuttled and should be implemented immediately.

“In response, Vajpayee dispatched his emissary Mahajan to explain the PM's stance. But Naidu is unwilling to accept Vajpayee’s request that Sankhya Vahini be dumped,” a senior AP government official told rediff.com.

He said Vajpayee is hesitant to scrap the project as he realises Naidu’s crucial role in the BJP-led coalition government. “Naidu has a large contingent of MPs in the NDA. The prime minister won't risk political stability for a project that the RSS leadership does not want,” the official reasoned.

Sources said the tech-savvy Naidu is also chalking out plans to scuttle an internal probe that the information technology ministry has instituted to examine the technical details and the Memorandum of Understanding of Sankhya Vahini.

According to information gathered by rediff.com from the information technology ministry, the Indian government’s MoU with the CMU is “illegal” as the IUNet did officially exist when the deal was signed on October 16, 1998.

Since IUNet was not registered as a company when the MoU was signed, the ministry is now investigating the antecedents of the company through the Indian Embassy in Washington. Officials said the IT ministry will submit a report to the Vajpayee government in one month’s time. In other words, Sankhya Vahini stands “frozen” till such time the report is submitted.

Observers said it is unlikely that the probe will lead anywhere, given Naidu’s determination to see the project through to execution, come what may.

Since Naidu is bargaining from a position of political strength, it is also unlikely that Vajpayee will give in to the RSS pressure and abandon the project, they said.

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