Bhopinder Singh
India has a genealogical discomfort with big corporations – East India Company, which was chartered as, “Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies” was the progenitor to the subsequent British rule over India. So much so, despite the obvious commercial temptations of siding with the Imperial powers, the capitalists of Pre-Independence in the form of theTata’s, Birla’s, Singhania’s etc. threw their weight behind the freedom struggle and earned the wrath of Churchill who said, “Manufacturing and financial interests were behind the Congress”. The then corporate captains did not escape the prevailing spirit of nationalism and national consciousness-best exemplified by the Tata’s self-mandated legacy of looking beyond profits to posit their relevance in societal roles, philanthropy and investments in businesses that afforded a national benefit and requirement, and not just a business groups.
Corporate India, soon lost its innocence in the subsequent days of the ‘License Raj’ and the cancerous relation of quid pro quo with the political classes ensued. World over, democracy and liberal economics got intermeshed and intertwined to drive the world out of the cold war era into an increasingly capitalistic world that gave rise to supremacist terms like tycoons, oligarchs, shoguns to sharks of the industry, who were feted like heroes in the new world order of irreversible capitalism. The slick and sharp-suited corporate superheroes could do no wrong and they started rewriting the tenets of innate humanity and civility with brutal individuality, driving animalistic consumption and the ultimate gospel of ‘winner-takes-it-all’. With the financial muscle at their disposal, perceptions could be managed, bought or window-dressed to ensure that globally, the co-conspirator in the form of the political classes got the principal flak for corruption and wrong doings in society, while the residual muck that somehow got stuck to a few capitalists could conveniently be attributed to the proverbial bad apples – In India, besides theoccasionallabour unrests and limited trade union issues, the corporate citizenry was able to keep its imagery squeaky clean.
21st century ushered in the first real and frightening signs of big corporate frauds with Enron in 2001 (accounting fraud that wiped out $78 billion in stock value), Bernard Madoffs Ponzi schemes (largest fraud by an individual, amounting to $65 billion) and the trigger to the recent global recession with investment banker Lehman Brothers (largest bankruptcy in history with assets of $600 billion, going belly-up) – the stage was set for looking beyond the glitzy buildings and the glib talk. Coincidentally, India too had its own share of ‘bad apples’ initially, but worrisomely in the new millennium, nexus between the industry and political classes started gettingobvious, murkier, institutionalized and beyond just electoral funding. Nominations of various capitalists to the parliament increased (nothing wrong with that, at the face of it) anddodgypresence in Lutyen’s corridors of powers, increased – however, the penny dropped formally with the Radia tapes where the complex web of the vested ecosystem unraveled itself, beyond the acceptable mandate of influencing commercial policies to managing the political classes and the direction of the country per se, to suit the individual organizational interests. Subsequently, the rise of certain organizations could be seen to have a direct correlation to the fortunes of certain associated political parties.
Recent headlines in India have proved the Cassandra’s of the systemic rot and the shady dark side, right – Companies run by individual billionaires are running into debilitating debts that threaten the financial worthiness and existence of various banks and thereby threaten the common man and his small hard-earned investments in the same. The rogues gallery features some of the hitherto, respected names in Industry. Indian version of Ponzi schemes have emerged out of the woodwork with iconic corporates who sponsored and branded their name along that of the nation’s, on the jerseys of the national cricket teams, Formula 1 teams etc. However, the most debated case of political connivance, moral impudence and brazenness is that of the liquor baron who has successfully milked the technicality and perversion of ‘limited liability’ for individual avarice and wantonness that has horrified the sensibilities of a shocked nation and its citizens,with such hubris. Importantly, supported by bothmain national political parties at various times for the nomination to terms in the parliament – he had ‘earned’ his nationalistic stripes by the re-purchase of Tipu Sultan’s sword for 1.57 crores in 2004 (therefore not surprisingly, still deified as ‘son of Karnataka soil’ by an ex-Prime Minister!).
In hindsight, all adulation and hero-worship as the Indian version of Richard Branson – who personified the ‘good times’ of the new emerging India’s unleashed aspirations. Stories abound of adequate ‘pay-back’ abilities with enough assets to monetize – however, counter-deals to agree for less than half the amount owed, is a slap on the face of ordinary citizens and honest tax payers who never claimed such exalted positions in society or in the officialwarrant of precedence. The gall and devil-may-care attitude reeks of the worst kind of corruption – it is not just the corruption of impressive financial denominations, privileges or string-pulling, it is the most elemental and scariest of them all – the corruption of the intrinsic spirit that defines the corporate citizenry of today!Anything is fair game – from quasi-religious godmen peddling commerce in the guise of nationalism, Ayurveda or even religion – the mutation of corporate India is unmistakably political and bereft of the values that once drove along the nation’s progress. It is this very atrophy of spirit that insists on holding the corporatized sporting drama in the form of IPL cricket at Maharashtra – an event that necessitates the usage of precious water resources to prepare the outfield when in the near vicinity of Latur district, farmers toiling the parched lands are committing suicide for lack of water! This when ample alternative playgrounds in states without such devastation abound – that too under the auspices of arguably the richest private sports organisation in the world, a corporate-political fiefdom remains agnostic of its optics – an ode to a spirit, devoid of conscience.The latest’Panama’ list is the unworthy successor of the failed corporate black money trail that almost petered out for want of tangible results. The divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is dangerously widening with faultlines manifesting in the form of tribal unrests, Maoist insurgency, urban violence and many such forms of disgruntlement with the inexplicably rich thriving in the midst of the shirtless, roofless and often, the voiceless.
India surely needs to harness its industrial potential and intellectual capital – do everything to support the industrial and service sector to be competitive in the global village. But, it cannot do so without’inclusive’ growths that do not betray the common man of his beliefs, savings and honesty.The perceptions of the corruption of spirit are now widely pervasive for the corporate honchos and the onus of putting the house in order beyond the gimmickry ofCSR or CSV initiatives that look and sound much better than they actually deliver on ground or impact the balance sheets, is on the corporates themselves.A sense of the larger playground called India with all its challenges, wounds and survival desperations needs to be accounted for, in the actions of the corporates. Refugee behind the legal-technicalities that govern the corporate laws, or exhibiting behavior that is agnostic beyond the sharply defined target consumers or of the competitive set and instincts that drives such ostrich syndrome of insensitivity, betray the spirt of conscience. Skeletons are pouring out of the corporate cupboards and they can be best summed up by the maverick capitalist Warren Buffet who famously stated, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked”!
(The author is former Lt Governor of Andaman Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
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