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Hindus Want Internet Access as Fundamental Right

Hindus want high-speed internet access as a universal fundamental right.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that global disparity in broadband access should be narrowed and it should be universally accessible and affordable.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that internet access should be part of the basic infrastructure and everyone should have access to participate in this information/knowledge society. Internet was speedily becoming important part of our lives and brought greater freedom and was fundamental to liberty. We needed a connected world and none could provide better than universal access to internet.

Rajan Zed argued that universal internet access would help in fighting global poverty and disease, improving living standards, accelerating progress and economic/social development, enriching education/learning, gender equity, availability of services in remote/rural areas, enhancing business and national competitiveness, reducing traffic and pollution, promoting tourism, delivering entertainment/creative/educational content online, creating jobs, fostering innovation, reducing desire to move to urban centers, improving skills, allowing decentralized work environments, providing platform for addressing social issues, reducing cost and improving communication, increasing productivity, encouraging investment, getting higher revenues, improving healthcare, etc.

Zed pointed out that in many poor countries, broadband penetration was even below one percent while the access cost was exorbitant. This disparity and divide needed to go and universal net access should be the norm.

Rajan Zed also stressed the need of preserving "net neutrality." He pointed out that openness, freedom, and a level playing field of internet should be maintained and corporate greed should not be allowed to govern it.

Zed urged other religious leaders of the world, including His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, to wholeheartedly support the causes of "net neutrality" and internet access as fundamental right.

Rajan Zed congratulated Finland for being the first country to make broadband a legal right for its every citizen and for promising to connect everyone to a 100Mbps connection by 2015.