Posted at 09:50 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I started the year cheering ‘may the best of our past be the worst of our future’, fully convinced that it could not get worse than 2008. It seems that everybody I spoke to had experienced some sort of personal tragedy in 2008. As if that were not enough, the world itself seemed to have gone through quite a tumultuous year – worst recession since the great depression, oil at unprecedented levels, a food crisis and finally the Mumbai tragedy – as if to say, this is as bad as it’s going to get. So, with renewed vigour and hope, I looked out at the 2009 expanse from the rapidly closing 2008 window, and imagined how wonderful my life would be – The new year would bring with it new opportunities, new people, new dreams and perhaps the simple passing of time would simply erase all my troubles. But 3 weeks into the new year and I realize that life is not that simple. New problems have come up.
Raju ban
Whose land is it anyway?
Oil’s not well
Posted at 12:12 AM in General | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
An opinion on the Satyam fiasco -
RAM, bam, thank you ma’m, that’s the feeling I got when I read RAM Raju’s letter to his board and shareholders admitting guilt in a multi-year multi-billion dollar fraud that many people are calling the “Enron of India’. While they will be pleased that we now go down in the history books with a corporate scandal of a magnitude that puts us at par with the USA, (we seem to be obsessed with one-upmanship with the rapidly decaying super-power of the world – what else can explain names like Bollywood, India’s 9/11, and now Enron of India) that is not the point of this commentary. The point is that even in his letter, while Ram seemingly said sorry, it was anything but apologetic. If anything the letter was extremely clinical. One could even say it was arrogant – I did what I had to do, I tried my best to cover it up, the problem is that there was no way to continue hiding things, I am still not going to tell you exactly what happened, now go ahead and do what you have to – is how I read the letter. Here is what appears to have happened –
Cooking the books
Mr. Ramalinga Raju claimed that his crime was that he cooked
his company’s books to overstate the health of the company’s earnings and
balance sheet as he was afraid of getting off the proverbial tiger. This coming from a man, who only a few months
back, in September 2008 on an interview on NDTV spoke at length about Satyam’s
beliefs and his personal principles. He
discussed the word Satyam’s origins (his father’s name and the Sanskrit term
meaning truth) and how his company and its management tried to reflect the very
etymology of the word. This was the same
month that Satyam won the Golden Peacock Global Award for excellence in
corporate governance – an international award conferred on companies that
follow best practices as far as company administration is concerned. Mr. Raju himself won the coveted Ernst &
Young entrepreneur of the year award in 2007. How did a company exalted for such high levels
of conduct and one who’s leadership seemed to represent the highest values that
mankind can strive for, go from corporate halls of fame to a shameful existence
within 3 months?
I think that the plot is a lot more sinister than Mr. Raju
would have us believe. Rather than a
victim of circumstances of a dog-eat-dog world, Mr. Raju seems to epitomize
what our country is quickly becoming – a culturally and morally bankrupt
society. Like many in this country Mr.
Raju probably got ahead of himself at some point and started believing that
reality was simply what he wanted it to be.
He figured that wrong or right was less about absolutes and more about
perception. The biggest sin was getting
caught and with the kind of power he wielded – in Andhra Pradesh at least –
getting caught was perhaps not probable.
However, the global economy was something beyond his control and the
effects of the meltdown soon came looking for victims in india, of which Mr. Raju is the
first but certainly not the last. Essentially,
Mr. Raju got caught in a vicious cycle of downward spiraling real-estate prices
and a stock market that could not find the bottom.
What we have been told so far is that Mr. Raju has not profited from this accounting scandal and all he was trying to do was to build value for shareholders of the company most of who were regular everyday people and institutions. In fact Mr. Raju and other promoters held only 8% of the entire shareholding of the company. What incentive would he then have to engineer such a massive fraud? There are 2 assumptions here 1) people conduct frauds only for money 2) what Mr. Raju is telling us is the truth. Both seem faulty. History tells us that power and competition is a much more heady cocktail than wealth can ever be and perhaps it is this very intoxication that lead Mr. Raju on the same path that many a great men have been tempted down.
Secondly, I don’t believe we are being told the truth. In fact we may never know the entire truth. However, for whatever it is worth, I believe that Mr. Raju siphoned off the funds to fund his real-estate ventures. I believe that the massive land acquisitions, which put Mr. Raju and his companies, amongst some of the largest landlords in this country, were made, at least in part, from funds generated by Satyam. Let me be clear – I have no evidence to suggest the same. My claim is simply an opinion. However, if one looks at Mr.Raju’s track record one finds enough evidence to suggest a man who liked living on the corporate edge. This is not the first time that he has tried to divert Satyam’s money to other companies held by him. In the late 1990’s there was some attempt to invest in Satyam Constructions. In fact over the last decade Mr. Raju has flirted with several investments and companies that were actually not completely thought through, questionable or simply bad business decisions. I believe that a deeper probe will reveal not only embezzlement of funds but also the involvement of political personalities and other corporate honchos that could raise many questions about the health of our much venerated corporate sector.
Skeletons abound
The Satyam scandal points to a nexus of profiteers who believe that the rules don’t apply to them. It points to bribes, illegitimate favors, coercion, forgery, theft, and perhaps many other crimes by corporate india, politicians, and the bureaucracy. I expect that over the next few weeks many organizations in corporate india will be exposed for what they really are – a set of cooked books, ponzi schemes, and hollow transactions. (Note - Look for at least 1 company in the broadband sector and 1 in the media sector as well as a couple more in real-estate).
The new husband
Booking the cooks
Mr. Raju will be brought to task not because he committed a
crime or got caught. He will pay the
price because he got caught at a time that citizen activism is the highest in
the country. He will serve time because
he got caught just before elections – the current government cannot afford to
let the opposition use this as a campaign tool. He will face consequences as there are too
many important people who could get caught in the cross-fire. He is better ‘kept quiet’ behind bars or in
other ways that we will soon discover.
If not for the above I would have agreed with Mr. Salve except with a slight modification – This is god’s country, nobody goes to prison here, they only become celebrities.
Posted at 12:22 AM in The Satyam Saga | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Dec 13th – Almost 3 weeks have passed since the attacks in Mumbai and I still find myself restless. It feels as if it was yesterday and I can’t seem to shake the images off. There are so many questions. They just don’t stop -
simply be present at the scene? Why wasn’t there one person coordinating the
entire effort? Why didn’t we have any
information about what was going on? Why was the effort so chaotic? Why do our
security heads believe that keeping us in the dark is the best way to handle
such situations? Why do they manipulate
every news item that comes out? Why are
we only hearing stories about number of lives that were actually saved? Why are we giving out 5 lacs for showing up
at the target site and 10 lacs for firing a bullet at the terrorists? Why do
they think we do not realize the truth? Do they know the truth?
based on political
affiliations? Is it more important for
us to know how many times he has spoken to the prime minister or is it more
assuring to know what the government is doing to take charge of the
situation? When did he become an expert
on terrorism activities? What right does
he have to make wild claims, within hours, on which outfit was responsible for
these attacks without the right data and analysis? How can an individual who single-handedly
gave terrorism a platform in this country – by destroying the Babri Masjid – be
our only leadership option? How come our
streets are riddled with hoardings, posters and pictures of politicians take
credit for everything from our GDP growth to the death of the terrorists? Why do political parties have free license to
disfigure our city? Why don’t they pay,
like the rest of us, if they wish to use our outdoor media? Are we ok with
having our country run on personal feelings, whims and fancies? Who
are these people running our country and where did they come from?
not
speak with the same passion that he did when he was finance minister? Where is the man, who through his poetic and
arousing budget speeches in the parliament gave us reason to believe that
change was
possible? Is he so caught up
in his politics that he has forgotten his mission? Has he lost sight of the millions of Indians
who had our hopes pinned upon a new India when he came into
office? Yes, we want a prime minister
who has a squeaky clean reputation; Yes, we want somebody who can take tough
stands; Yes, the man should be able to propel our nation forward; But more than
ever we need somebody who can move us.
Somebody who can inspire us. Somebody who speaks
to us from the heart. Somebody we can relate to. Somebody who can unite us. Somebody we can have faith in. Will the real Manmohan Singh please stand
up?
What action did our ex-Chief Minister taken in the last few
years? Has anyone ever seen a bead of
worry on his forehead? Why does he
always appear like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar? How does he sleep at night? Why do our
politicians feel that their job is to win elections and that their work ends
when they get into office? Shouldn’t
their work start when they join office? Why
does it seem like being in office is the celebration for fighting the election?
Why is being ‘in position’ the most important thing for us? Isn’t being ‘in position’ the beginning and
not the end? Do you ever get the feeling
that most people in this country are simply ‘getting in position’? Is there anybody left to take action?
What concrete steps have been taken since the crimes
occurred? Yes, a couple of politicians
have lost their ‘positions’ but will that lead to any good or are they simply
being replaced by people who had also, at some point, lost their
‘positions’. Does it feel like we are on
a merry-go-round? Why have we still not
been given one single comprehensive view on what exactly happened? Has a complete internal security plan been
presented before the people of this country? Have we been told how the victim’s
families should come to terms with this?
What are we doing to make sure that people did not lose their lives in
vain? Were they just collateral
damage? Why can’t we have a cross-party task force to address all the issues
completely, cohesively, and quickly. Where is our sense of duty that will ensure
that this never happens again?
I could go on and on and on because no matter how hard I try the questions just don’t stop. In the end, perhaps there is just one question that matters - What next?
Posted at 12:15 AM in Mumbai Tragedy | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
There is no question that the heinous crime in Mumbai was a cowardly act committed by ignorant human beings. My heart goes out to the people who have had to lose their loved ones in the cross fire between political factions, fundamentalist religions, and a world gone wrong. I have never been this pained about any disaster anywhere in the world. When the Pentagon blew up on 9/11, I was in my balcony in Washington DC but it did not have the kind of devastating impact I feel after Nov 26th. Perhaps it is because
this is closer home. Maybe it is because I grew up in these hotels - they are a stone's throw from where I live. It could be because I heard gun fire and saw explosions for 35 hours straight. It is probably because I know many of the people who perished personally. I am not sure what the reasons are but I know that this cannot go on. I don't have the answers yet. There are a million questions but no answers. I am sure many of you feel the same. I realize that a big part of the blame lies with our government but I also think that there is a bigger question - Can we really separate ourselves from our government? Isn't a government a reflection of it's people?
No, I am not blaming you or myself for the terrible tragedy that occurred. What I am saying is that we must take some responsibility to change things. I think that the biggest difference that all of us can make is to VOTE. Our country elects it's government based on caste and community. Besides the people at
the bottom of the pyramid nobody shows up at the booths. If indeed, we let only the illiterate in our country elect our government how can we expect that they will elect anybody different. A starving man has a mentality of scarcity. One cannot teach him morals and values until his hunger is first taken care of. Leaving our government to the poorest of poor in our country ensures that they elect officials as hungry as them. The only difference is that the elected official's hunger comes from greed and the fact that he knows he can get away with manipulating the proletariat. He knows he can get away with murder, rape and fraud with complete apathy.
I don't know how many of you saw the coverage of the politician who was caught in a room at the Taj. He said that while he could hear the sounds he was not concerned as he had his laptop with him and hence was able to plan his entire upcoming campaign. He said 'he was happy'. Obviously, this cannot be a very intelligent man. An intelligent person, even if he felt the way this politician described, would probably not say what he did. This man is a product of an apathetic society. He is used to getting away with inane comments such as these. He does not have the basic common sense to know the difference between right and wrong leave alone tact. How can we blame him? All we can do is to make sure he does not get elected.
I think if we want to really make a change we should all resolutely make a decision - that we will vote. No matter how painful. No matter how long it takes. No matter how far we have to travel. But vote we must. In a democracy this is not only our right but our obligation. If we don't get in the way of inept people being elected into our government we have only ourselves to blame.
P:S - Another thing we can do is to educate our circle of influence - drivers, maids, workers, etc - on what voting means. They need to understand the consequences of electing people based on caste and creed as opposed to the ability to govern and administer. When we go to the booths the only thing that should matter is the potential of the person to govern his or her constituency effectively. Nothing else.
Posted at 01:19 AM in Mumbai Tragedy | Permalink | Comments (0)