Indian Government banned sending bulk sms and mms for next 72 hours in lieu of very important Ayodhya verdict. According to some estimates, the bulk SMS business in India accounts for revenues of roughly Rs 20 crore every month.Bulk sms is a very effective and potential communication tool for many brands. This cost effective tool is being used as marketing tool by almost all major banks, corporate, brands, public services etc.A very cost effective and direct communication medium is now banned for next 3 days; according to popular news channels' latest tweets: @starnewslive and @ndtv. Stopping these services means, you won't get your morning news alert, your bank transaction sms, latest offer information in nearby mall and even a internal informative sms from your company (if they are using it).
On the other side, everyone knows how important is verdict about 'Ayodhya'. It's one of biggest national issue. This judgment is super sensitive in many ways, be it communal, political, cultural or historical. Surely, government is taking all steps to handle unexpected havoc after the judgment. However, I personally feel that this is more than what we can expect in a demographic country like India.
How can government cut off people from this very important communication medium? Why should all those suffer just because of Ayodhya verdict? Why should a marketer stop communicating with their audience for no reason at all? Will they ban Blogs, emailers and outbound calls, too? Are tv channels, radio stations and print next in line??
