Why has Reliance Jio accused Airtel and Vodafone of unfair practices in Punjab?

Reliance Jio has written a letter of protest to the telecom regulator TRAI. In the letter, Reliance Jio has alleged that both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea were carrying out unethical mobile number porting to capitalise on the ongoing farmers’ protest. The allegations appear to be quite interesting at this point of time.

Jio has alleged that Airtel and Vodafone Idea continued to use advertisement campaigns through their employees, agents and retailers with a view to misleading the people of Haryana, Punjab and other northern states. Airtel and Vodafone have been allegedly inciting Jio subscribers to migrate to their networks.

Jio has complained that both Airtel and Vodafone had tried to create fear in the minds po farmers that large groups like the Ambani group would not come to dominate the agricultural sector and ease out farmers. They had apparently asked these farmers to port their number from Jio to Airtel / Vodafone to avoid supporting the Reliance group.

Many farmers already see the MSP as a vital safety net and fear that they not be able to compete with large farms and huge buyers like Reliance Retail would hold the farmers to ransom. To an extent, the Reliance group is already facing the heat of the protests and they accuse competition of fanning these rumours.