Jio accuses Airtel, Vodafone Idea of fanning farmers’ ire against it

Reliance Jio has accused rival companies Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea of unethical marketing practices to fan farmers’ anger against the firm and grow their own customer base.

While Vodafone Idea did not immediately react to Jio’s charges, Airtel termed the complaint as baseless and asked the government to dismiss it.

In a complaint to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India secretary S K Gupta last week, Jio said “in order to read meagre gains in port-in numbers these service providers are intentionally defaming Reliance Jio by depicting it as against the farmers and projecting themselves as farmer friendly while at the same time intentionally fanning the anti-government protests.”

The actions by rival telecom companies are in violation of principles of tariff advertisement and TRAI orders, Jio said.

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Farmer unions which have been protesting against agrarian laws for over a fortnight had called for boycott of Jio products last week. The calls for boycott of products was also trending on social media.

Jio further accused that rival telecom teams are using their sales teams and channel partners to instigate feelings against Jio and these could jeopardise safety and security of its personnel and installations while seeking action against Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

“Airtel has operated in the telecom industry for 25 years. During this period, we have competed hard in the market place and striven to serve our customers with excellence. At the same time we take great pride in treating our competitors and partners with respect,” Airtel’s chief regulatory officer Rahul Vatts said in his submission to TRAI.

“Despite being provoked by some competitors who we know will go to any length to make baseless allegations, adopt bullying tactics and use intimidatory behaviour we have always conducted our business with character and transparency something that we are deeply proud of and known for,” Vatts added.

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