To

The CEO’s

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, Reliance 

 Reg: Compensate us for your failure during the Chennai rains

Sirs, 

As you might be well aware by now, Chennai faced the worst ever rains last week in the past century. People were marooned, hoping someone would come to their rescue,  they were caught in their homes unable to get out and struggled without food and water. Thanks to the thousands of volunteers, large parts of the city managed to be saved, showing the country what can be done in times of a crisis.

But not you. All your phone networks went down during the crucial hours when people were desperately looking for help. Your phone networks did not work for almost 5 days after the rains. Either you shut it down due to government pressure or for any other technical reasons. We are not bothered about it. 

The fact is, Sirs, you failed the citizens of the city when it was drowning. People were desperately trying to reach for help. Anxious relatives in Chennai and elsewhere were left wondering what happened to their near and dear ones who were caught in the floods. Parents couldn’t talk to their children who had gone for work. Children living abroad or in other cities in India were unable to find out if their parents had survived the rains or had drowned.  We are not even sure if you understand how harrowing the experience has been for not only the people of Chennai but also for our relatives living elsewhere. You, Sirs, try to profiteer by every single means available. You tried to break net neutrality and joined together to make every single paise that you could.

Yet, in times of emergency and need, you were found wanting and were absolutely callous. Crucial hours were lost by people trying to reach for help, some people drowned and died. Many lives could have been saved had your networks been working, help could have reached faster. 

Hence, we the people of Chennai, demand that all of you compensate your subscribers and this wonderful city of Chennai.  We also demand that you ensure that you find ways and means to make your networks in the future should such a crisis arise. 

You, Sirs, need to own up for this absolute failure and take moral responsibility for the disastrous failure/shutting down of your networks.

We, the people of Chennai, also demand that all of you issue a public apology, for you failed us at the most important time when our lives were in grave danger.