Mood:  vegas lucky

One day I bought two Airtel refil cards for Rs 455 each. This is just about a year ago. In those days I had a prepaid number which was so easy to recharge and was hassale-free as their ad says. About four years ago I had an Orange post-paid number. There was nothing called customer service with Orange in those days. I wonder how much has it changed since it got converted to Hutch. I was rudely stopped from using Orange services one day because they would not recognise the fact that I had paid my bills to their designated bank -- Punjab National Bank near my house. Though, I had been paying my bills at that bank branch for years. Even when I had faxed them the bill copy I had paid, and even agreed to send them photo copies of the bills Orange service center man rudely told me that the connection will be cut within 24 hours if the Rs 2,600 bill was not paid again.

I didn't wait. I immediately got a prepaid Airtel card because I heard from many of my friends that the service provider gets less opportunity to fleece you than with a postpaid card where you are beholden to the service provider. I also somehow suspect that because I had a very sought-after, easy to memorise phone number Orange was keen to sell that number to someone who would pay them well for it.

Well, with the pre-paid Airtel number things did work out as easy as their ads claim. It was hassle-free inasmuch as using the phone. And I really didn't care if I was being overbilled because the monthly outgo was affordable to me. It never was Rs 2,600. When you don't have any human contact,  services in India always look good. Only when you have to deal with the service provider officials things go sour. And I realised that when I bought the two Rs 455 refil cards.

I had bought the cards from a small four square feet shop which sells CDs and wrist watches near Mulund station. I took the two cards home and tried to refil my phone charge. A 'network problem' message flashed persistently. Then I waited till the next day to check if the network had eased to help me recharge. But to no avail. Finally I called up the service call center for lodging a complaint. The lady at the other end without holding her breath told me there is congestion problems since last two days and it will be resolved in about 20 minutes.

I knew she was lying so I took a reference number for the complaint. Expectedly, two days later the problem had not resolved. So I called up again. This time it was a male on the other end. I narrated my saga to him. He again gave me the congestion fiddlesticks. I growled at him and I gave him my earlier complaint reference number. He put me on music for nearly 15 minutes and finally came back to tell me that there was a 'unique' problem. The two refil cards of Rs 455 are not valid on my phone as I was their most favoured lifetime customer! Strange but it is true, as Freddie Mercury said.

So what do I do now, I asked him. He politely told me to go the nearest Airtel service center and give back the cards for reimbursement. I loved that attitude. So I trooped to the service center near Mulund station next morning. The lady (I guess companies employ girls for their glorified indifference to customers) as usual gave me the you-stupid-jerk look while she explained that they are not mandated to make any reimbursements to customers and that the call center guy is unlikely to have said so. Which essentially meant that I was lying.

She suggested that I go back to the dealer from whom I bought the card for reimbursement. I thought that was a stupid idea. It was already three days since I bought the refil cards, so the dealer would have forgotten any such customer. I did not have any bill to prove that I bought the two cards from him. And I suspected even he does not know about Rs 455 refills not working in lifetime numbers. Well, in any event I thought I will give it a try.

The dealer was non-comittal and made all the appropriate sympathetic noises for me. His logic was that once the cards are scratched it is impossible to sell them to another customer. I thought selling the same cards to another customer, that too with numbers exposed, is sacrilege. I presumed the dealer could give the two cards back to the company as they we're still unused and Airtel could check their veracity. The exchanges between us after that point are unprintable.

So I went back to Airtel service center for an explanation. What really riled me up was the fact that the refil cards never mentioned that it was not valid for lifetime customers. I asked the girl at the service centre the same question. She only had a disdainful shrug. To prove her point she called up the call centre 9892098920. After she ascertained if it was the policy to reimburse the money from exposed  cards mistakenly sold to lifetime customers she gave me the phone. The girl at the other end exasperatedly told me: "how can you even think of reimbursement from an exposed card?!" Hmmm... I didn't have the heart to tell her I am the courtesan not the customer. 

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Posted by Anil Nair at 6:05 PM

Updated: Sunday, 22 July 2007 6:38 PM

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Mood:  lazy

The next time you see an irresistible festive offer on white goods at a mall, it could well be new products launched by Jaish-e-Mohammad. Or the flurry of building activity in your neighbourhood could be real estate development by the famed terrorist organisation. Only weeks ago National Security Advisor MK Narayanan told a disbelieving Munich conference that he had strong suspicion that the stock markets could be manipulated with terrorist organisations pumping in their ill-gotten wealth, even while playing bull and bear to increase return on investment.

Now the US State Department brings out a spine-chilling report to substantiate these claims. Commodities and real estate sectors are the prime targets for investments, according to the Country Terrorism Reports 2006. JeM has invested in other legal businesses also, like consumer goods manufacturing, the report adds. The strategy was made in anticipation of asset seizures by the Pakistan government, when JeM withdrew funds from bank accounts and invested them in legal businesses. JeM is funded by al Qaeda. The terrorist group is also involved in restaurant and shipping business. In the growing economy it is easier to make money and to divert it to jihadi activities.

Speaking about terrorism worldwide the report says the number of people killed in terror attacks has increased by over 40 per cent while attacks have increased by 28 per cent. This could only mean that death rate in each attack has gone up. Not surprisningly, 65 per cent of all deaths in terror attacks has been in Iraq. But it is revelation to suggest that 35 per cent of deaths occur outside Iraq when most of us always thought only Iraq is riddled with the daily death-dance of terrorism. Iran, according to the report, is the world's biggest sponsor of terrorism supporting extremist groups throughout West Asia and more particularly in Iraq.

The report does not say about Iran's involvement in terror in South Asia but that is anybody's guess. Terrorism based on religion knows no boundaries. Like recently, China trashed Pakistan's claim over closing terrorist camps, when it accused it of the same crime against humanity as India does quite often.

Another of our neighbours Afghanistan, where jihadi terrorism breeds uninterrupted by modern civilisation, also witnessed a large jump in attacks, according to the report. The worrying aspect is that, the report makes it amply clear that terrorist organisations like al Qaeda are adapting to the counter-terrorism mechanisms. Must that include proactive involvement to enter the equity markets to beat the financial embargo laid by the war-against-terror syndicate?

But beyond that primer on terrorism it is the report's overview of South and Central Asia which is essential reading for Indians. The report states matter-of-factly, "terrorists staged numerous attacks in India, including a series of commuter train bomb attacks in Mumbai which killed over 200 people and injured more than 700. Despite challenges associated with its law enforcement and judicial systems, India achieved major successes this year, including numerous arrests and confiscation of explosives and firearms". There was no mention, however, of the excruciatingly long time taken by the courts to dispense with final orders in the first serial bomb blasts case in Mumbai in which Sanjay Dutt is involved. But the no-holds-barred report tells almost that. Read this: "India's counter-terrorism efforts were hampered by its outdated and overburdened law enforcement and legal systems. The Indian court system was slow, laborious, and prone to corruption; terrorism trials can take years to complete. An independent Indian think-tank determined that the thousands of civilians killed by terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir from 1988 to 2002 received justice in only 13 convictions through December 2002; most of the convictions were for illegal border crossing or possession of weapons or explosives. Many of India's local police forces were poorly staffed, trained, and equipped to combat terrorism effectively".

On our other neighbour Bangladesh, the import of its statement should not be lost on anyone. Bangladesh, it said, continued to arrest extremists but the deteriorating political situation in that country may increase the opportunity for refuge or transit. That statement could well be applied to places in India as well. In Nepal and Sri Lanka terrorism carried out by the Maoists and LTTE posed serious challenge to the governments in power.

The most prominent terrorist groups were violent extremist groups in Jammu and Kashmir; Maoists operating in the Naxalite belt in eastern, southern and central India and ethno-linguistic nationalists in the north-eastern states, according to the US State Department report.

But the most instructive part of the report is about how minorityism has shown its link to terrorism. The report says, India alleged, based on numerous arrests and several attacks, that the UN designated Foreign Terrorist Organisations (Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba) began a campaign in the Indian heartland to gain support from India's minority Muslim population for terrorist attacks. The Indian government, it added for good measure blamed the two prominent terrorist organisations based in Pakistan for several attacks in major Indian cities. Does that mean that the terrorist organisations in Pakistan are getting support from Muslims by raking up minorityism, is again, anybody's guess.

Recounting the major terror attacks in India the report says, on July 11 terrorists set off seven blasts on packed commuter trains in Mumbai killing at least 200 people and injuring more than 700. On March 7 terrorists set off three blasts in the holy city of Varanasi killing 21 and injuring 62 people. Without mincing words the report says, on September 9 terrorists set off a series of blasts outside a Mosque in the western city of Malegaon that killed 38 people and wounded more than 50. Police found that Malegaon attack was perpetrated by Islamic extremists hoping to invite further anger between Hindu and Muslim communities.

Dwelling further on the terror attacks in India the report says, on October 27, Karnataka state police in Mysore arrested two suspected terrorists who allegedly belonged to the terrorist group Al-Badr. "Police believed the suspects were inserted as an advance team to establish a base in southern India from which they would facilitate terrorist attacks on economic and government targets, especially in nearby Bangalore, a high-tech hub". This only confirms worst fears over the ambitions of terrorist organisations. They can subvert the system to enter legitimate business as well as threaten existing ones. Will Bangalore become another Bollywood?

On the othe hand, the July 11 terrorist attack in Srinagar that killed eight tourists and injured 43 in Srinagar was "designed to inhibit growth in the tourism industry and to hamper increasing Kashmiri enthusiasm for normalization of ties between India and Pakistan".

On Naxal terrorism, which has subsumed large swathes of eastern, central and southern India, the report says that naxalites grew in sophistication and lethality. Naxalites launched several high-level attacks, raising the insurgency's profile, and expanded the rural territory under their control.

All the same, the report even gives credence to several police investigations in all terrorism-related cases. "Despite these challenges, India scored major successes this year, including numerous arrests and the seizure of explosives and firearms during operations against Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terrorist groups". But don't be surprised if tomorrow jihadi terrorist organisations float a pension fund of their own in the stock markets. That is, if they haven't already.

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Posted by Anil Nair at 6:56 PM

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