Just because a person is poor does not mean he is stupid and cant decide for himself. Give poor people an opportunity to decide for themselves. "Free basics" i

Just because a person is poor does not mean he is stupid and cant decide for himself. Give poor people an opportunity to decide for themselves. "Free basics" is free because someone is paying for it (in this case facebook). Banning it would not make normal internet available at same price point to poor people. The choice here for these poor people is between "free basics" and "no internet". I personally think they are better off with "free basics". My driver has Whatsapp but no data connection as he does not want to pay (Rs 120) $2 per month extra. Instead he connects to wi-fi at my home whenever necessary. I think he will be better off with free basics. In a moral standpoint asking telecom companies to forgo their profits to impose our own view of internet on them through government coercion seems like theft to me. Since spectrum is public property government could have imposed such a restriction while demanding bids for it but adding this constraint later seems like a robbery.