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Industry cannot skirt social issues

After a fairly free run for a considerable time, India Inc. has stared to encounter a series of roadblocks. As one bad news after another pop out of the U.S. in a flurry, more speed-breakers are bound to come up in its way. The ongoing ugly Singur episode, the gruesome murder of the CEO of a multinational BPO (business process outsourcing) outfit on the outskirts of Delhi and farmers’ thumbs-down for the SEZ (special economic zone) project of the Ambanis are all poin ters to the slow surfacing of the simmering discontent within the majority constituency, which has been under the rough end of the liberalisation policy. All these while, the voice of this significant majority was drowned in the pro-reform noise of the influential section of the urban population with the active backing of lobbyists of all sorts, who have become self-styled torch-bearers of ‘India pride story’.

Having discovered the virtues of market economy, thanks primarily to the imported wisdom, corporate India has never fought shy of using every forum to push the reform agenda. As policy-planners in the Government work in concert with the corporate captains to disembark the socialist path of the growth, the sensitivity and sentiment of a largely unarticulated but a significant majority of the population have been ignored. This ‘ignored constituency’ is now silently re-asserting its rights. In the Singur context, it has found a political boss to articulate its discontent. Singur, no doubt, has taken political overtones. It also signals the fact that a powerless class, pushed to the precipice by insensitive reform measures, has now woken up and shown willingness to go on a combative mode.

Extolling the virtues of competition, the Indian industry has been demanding that goods and services should command only the market price, which is determined by the demand and supply. Fair enough. The same logic should hold good for them as well over land acquisition. They also assure a job for the family of the owner who has given his land over to the project. Does it solve his woes? What about the other members of the family, who are jobless and landless now? The idle mind of a jobless and now landless member of the family can be a virgin ground for unwanted thoughts.

The rush for setting up SEZs has also triggered a massive scramble for land, resulting in huge speculative buying. So much so, an impression is gaining increasing ground that SEZs are a ploy to acquire land at a cheap price. There may not be any truth in this perception. Yet, this perception has set off negative fallouts. The way the farmers vetoed the SEZ proposal of Reliance gives a clue or two to this. The choice and the timing of selling should rest with land owners. To force-sell their land to help a private enterprise, that is not fair. The unbridled industrialisation is also having an adverse fallout on agriculture. On the one hand, the rush for land has seen prices go through the roof. On the other, farming itself has become an unfashionable word. This has already put a huge strain on the country’s food security.

No doubt, India has come a long way since the days of liberalisation. The outlook of an Indian has changed in world estimate. Today’s Indian is lot more confident and assertive.

All these have happened primarily because of the emergence of India as the knowledge superpower in the international arena. To argue that ‘Look West’ policy is good because of all these is well neigh incorrect. Look at the way many corporate giants fall like a thud in the U.S. America, the greatest advocate of market economy, unashamedly has moved to take a series of actions that even a pure socialist nation would think many times now to do. You have seen the near nationalisation of AIG (American International Group). You have also seen the takeover by ‘command’ of companies by others. The competition theory, adopted by the West and others, tells us that only the fittest and efficient should survive. America, the principal protagonist of market economy, is now showing no hesitation in propping up the ‘inefficient ones’. Hurt badly, the U.S. Government has chosen to spread the protective net across and wide. As the saying goes, self-interest is the best interest. The U.S. has done exactly this.

The U.S. system (though it practices capitalism) provides for unemployment doles for the jobless. If any one is given a pink slip (loses job), he/she has the right to get subsistence money. In the Indian context, the State does not do any such Good Samaritan act. The employed takes care of the rest of the family in the Indian system. The protectionist cover that the U.S. Government provides to jobless individuals is not available in India. The killing of the CEO of the BPO firm could not be justified on any ground. The incident, however, underscores the need for the corporates to understand the sensitivity and compulsions of a workman in the Indian system. As they demand the right to hire and fire, corporates also need to understand their responsibility to the society at large. While doing business, they should also ensure that there is no social disturbance. Asking for RoI (return on investment) is definitely no sin. It can’t, however, be at the cost of ignoring the cause of social harmony.

With U.S. in deep turmoil, it holds many lessons for us. For one, it reiterates the need for moderation. For another, it calls for dumping the much-touted ‘ape west’ policy. More than all these, the U.S. crisis reemphasises the need to look within for native solutions, specific to India.

K. T. JAGANNATHAN

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