The government could have put more thought into its decision of letting Huawei participate in the upcoming 5G trials, Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) Director Dr Arvind Gupta said in New Delhi on Tuesday. “The company has been banned in Australia and Japan,” noted Dr Gupta, a former deputy National Security Advisor. The crucial remarks came during an interaction with journalists on the theme ‘India’s foreign policy outlook in 2020’.
The retired Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer further noted that restrictions had been put in place by the US government in August last year on the use of Huawei’s telecom equipment in government servers, which stemmed from cybersecurity and snooping concerns. The decision followed an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in May, which barred US players from using technology from companies considered as a threat to national security.
In questioning the sagacity of Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) decision, the VIF director has joined several other cyber experts and organisations which have also expressed apprehension over the move.
The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) last month asked the Prime Minister to intervene in the matter and appealed that the permission given to Huawei be withdrawn on grounds of national security.
“The presence of the Chinese companies in our telecommunications networks would compromise our national security," SJM co-convenor Dr Ashwani Mahajan had stated in his letter to the PM. He also said in his communication, dated December 31, that the company had strong ties with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and had been found to be involved in “stealing massive amounts of military and technological secrets through cyber-hacking from various countries.”
Notably, it was reported in August this year that “hidden backdoors” were found in equipment provided by Huawei to Vodafone Italy, which would have allowed the company to access the home network. On its part, Huawei has assured New Delhi that it would do away with all “backdoors” should it be awarded a 5G spectrum.
The decision of DoT to let Huawei be part of 5G trials was announced last month by Union Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad. “We have taken a decision to give 5G spectrum for trials to all the players," Prasad had said an industry event.
The minister had, however, added that allowing Huawei in the trials didn’t guarantee it a 5G spectrum in the Indian market.
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