The appointment from February 21 of N. Chandrasekaran (NC), hitherto chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), as chairman of Tata Sons Ltd, the apex-level holding company of the salt to software Tata Group (aggregate annual revenue: Rs.705,848 crore) — India’s largest business conglomerate — has been widely welcomed by ill-informed print and audio-visual media. The group’s former chairman Cyrus Mistry was ousted from office last October-December after a mere four years in office, in a boardroom coup engineered by his predecessor Ratan Tata. However, Ratan Tata’s second choice is likely to prove worse than his selection of Mistry four years ago.
For one, after proclaiming a global search, for the second time Ratan has chosen a Tata Sons chairman from his own backyard in Mumbai. Secondly, NC has working experience of only one industry (software services), and only one of the 100 companies of the widely diversified Tata Group. As a “tunnel-vision techie” he lacks the broad liberal and management education required. Moreover, there’s evidence that as a me-first careerist, he is not equipped with the generosity and public relations skills necessary for his new office. For instance, in none of his media interviews has he acknowledged the huge contribution of Fakir Chand Kohli (92) — TCS’ longest-serving CEO (1968-1996). For over two decades into the new millennium under Kohli’s leadership, TCS contributed over 80 percent of the Tata Group’s annual profit, which funded its global expansion and acquisitions. Nor without Kohli’s benediction would NC have been appointed CEO of TCS in 2009.
Admittedly, there is a personal animus of your editor towards the over-hyped new chairman of Tata Sons. In 2009 when he was appointed CEO of TCS, Chandrasekaran whimsically abrogated the annual TCS-EducationWorld Teachers Awards which acknowledged, celebrated and modestly rewarded school teachers from across the country on the excuse of unaffordability of Rs.7 lakh per year, even as his annual remuneration increased from Rs.8 crore to Rs.21 crore. Ecce homo.
Illusory property rights
Once upon a time the right to own, use and dispose property was a fundamental right included in Part III of the Constitution of India. But in the 1970s fired with socialist fervour, then prime minister Indira Gandhi amended Article 31 and abolished the fundamental right to own and dispose property by decreeing an “amount” at the discretion of the State to be paid for sequestered property. Since then, the country’s notoriously venal neta-babu brotherhood has interpreted property rights to its own advantage.
The brazenness with which government babus trample upon the property rights of citizens has been brought into sharp relief in the trials and tribulations of members of the Bombay Gymkhana (estb.1875), the well-known private club in urbs prima in Indis. Because of its prime location in downtown Bombay (aka Mumbai), excellent infrastructure and management, the club has a decades-long waiting list of aspiring members. As such, it has attracted the beady eyes of neta-babus who despite their boorish manners and lack of social graces — the prerequisite of membership — are hell-bent on entry. To accommodate these elements, special service memberships are routinely awarded to senior babus ex officio. But this wasn’t good enough for municipal commissioner Ajoy Ghosh, IAS, who wants post-service permanent membership that would entitle his progeny to full membership rights.
When the club’s management demurred citing its rules, the club’s car-parking rights based on prolonged usufruct were abruptly revoked, renewal of the lease of its main games ground became problematic, the management was issued a land-slice acquisition notice for a road-widening project, and the club was denied its usual New Year’s Eve liquor vending licence.
The latest news is that the Bombay Gym management has caved in and high court judges, officers of the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Revenue Service and Indian Postal Service have become eligible for membership per se and IPS and IAS officers who have been service members for over six years are eligible for post-service permanent membership. Which means they will import their insolence of office into the club. A telling commentary on the rule of law and property rights in contemporary India.
Prime time colour wars
With the exit of Arnab Goswami — the celebrated combative anchor of the English language Times Now television news channel — other hitherto also-ran channels, NDTV 24x7 and CNN-IBN have received a new lease of life.
However a war has broken out between NDTV and CNN-IBN, both of whom claim the largest English language viewership, over the issue of covert colour prejudice, rife in Bollywood and Indian society which are patently ashamed of their Indian ethnicity.
NDTV, which has recently sacked its czarina Barkha Dutt, has fired the first shot by continuously proclaiming that it has taken an executive decision not to accept any skin whitening advertisements in its channels, and has backed up this commitment by replacing Dutt with the chic brown Sarah Jacob as the host of its We the People Sunday night prime-time show. On the other hand, CNN-IBN has been caught flat-footed because the marquee sponsor of its prime-time news is Fair & Handsome, a male skin lightening cream. Clearly, there’s something incongruous about the channel’s swarthy news anchors — even if they are lathered with foundation to make them sufficiently pasty-faced — being sponsored by Fair & Handsome. Moreover, the archaic colour prejudice of its marquee sponsor is an indicator of the political naivete of its anchors who claim to be hard-nosed ‘journalists’.
First Round to NDTV. But watch out, Arnab is working feverishly to launch a new English 24x7 news and several other channels under the name and style of Republic. The sparks are about to fly again and the mighty humbled in their seats.