India Inc is upset that its tallest icons, from the Tatas to the Birlas and Ambanis, have become Bollywood’s new target of hate. A song from the still-to-be-released Prakash Jha flick titled Chakravyuh runs something like this, as an earlier Firstpost report noted. Birla ho ya Tata, Ambani ho ya Bata, Sabne apne chakkar mein des ko hai kaata.
In short, all have looted India, says the lyricist. Barring poor Bata, a Canadian-Czech who has done little to deserve being lumped along with those who allegedly mulcted the nation, all the other business figures need no justification in the public’s mind for being included in Bollywood’s new list of infamy.
Like Yudhisthira’s chariot, which hit the ground with a thud in Kurukshetra after he lied to Dronacharya about the alleged death of the latter’s son Ashwatthama, India Inc’s bandwagon has hit a rough patch in terms of public image after the unveiling of various scams running into lakhs of crores – from 2G to CWG to CoalG.
Yesterday’s heroes—the men and women who create jobs and script success stories—have become villains. The song has already attracted a note from the film censor board, and Jha is expected to put in a disclaimer to the effect that “the names used in the song are symbolic and do not intend to harm or disrespect any brand or individual”. Which is fine, but no one watching the song (here’s the Youtube link to the song, the references to Tata, etc, somewhere in the middle of the song) will be in any doubt who are really being referred to here despite the disclaimer.
High-pitch criticism has followed. “This is irresponsible populism. It is not right to besmirch the reputation of corporates like this,” says The Economic Times, quoting Suhel Seth, a permanent fixture on some TV channels. He adds for good measure: “The amount of work (social good) the Birlas and the Tatas have done is something that Prakash Jha cannot even fathom.”
Sau chuhe khake billi Haj ko chali. Like the proverbial cat that swallows a hundred rats and then heads for the Haj, the public is currently more obsessed with the wrongs that business (the sau chuhe) may have done than its occasional CSR (corporate social responsibility) contributions.
But the reality is this. In recent news reports, barring Bata, every other name mentioned in the song has surfaced either in the 2G or Coalgate scams as the recipient of government largesse. India Inc’s reputation is in tatters, and the less it objects to being critiqued, the more likely it is to earn back its reputation. Indian business has revealed both sides of its personality – Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – after 1991. On the one hand, many of them have done genuinely good work to make themselves competitive (including the Tatas, Birlas and Ambanis) and battled foreign competition both as home and abroad.
On the other hand, they have also used dubious lobbyists and political clout for feathering their own nests. This is why the other side of the coin in political scams is always imprinted with a businessman’s face. In 2G, the licences of Birla and Tata were cancelled, and senior executives of the Ambanis went to jail. In Coalgate, some of these worthies were again facing adverse scrutiny on whether they received favours from politicians at Centre or state.
But far from recognising their mistakes and calling for transparency in future dealings, businessmen are busy defending the indefensible. Assocham recently issued a newspaper advertisement criticising the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG’s) reports on various scams under the following heading: “CAG reports sending wrong messages.”
This is simply counter-productive. As we noted in Firstpost, the ad criticises the CAG on many issues, including the coal block allocations, the Delhi airport controversy and the diversion of coal by Reliance Power. But in the current atmosphere of public mistrust of both politicians and the businessmen they are in cahoots with, the public sees the CAG as here, not India Inc.
Bollywood seldom gets it wrong when it comes to gauging the pulse of popular opinion or anger. It has always been good at pandering to the latest stereotypes and concerns. In the 1960s and 1970s, when Nehruvian socialism treated the rich as suspects till proven otherwise, moviedom’s favourite hate target was the “munimji” – that wily and crooked moneylender who not only cheats our poor hero, but also rapes his spouse or daughter (from Mother India onwards).
In the next two decades, Amitabh Bachchan, the angry young man of Indian cinema, had created a new object of hate: the criminal, smuggler and businessman rolled into one (Deewar, for example). That was the heyday of the licence-quota raj, and the rich were invariably smugglers. In the 1990s, as terrorism became the dominant concern, we find new hate objects in rich businessmen and traders (Mirchi Seth) backing terrorists for private profit (as in the Aamir Khan starrer Sarfarosh).
Post-reforms, business got a more receptive audience, and becoming rich was no longer considered a crime. Over the last decade, Bollywood’s films made no apologies for characters who were rich (as in Dil Chahta Hai) and sought wealth to become globe-trotters (as in Shah Rukh Khan’s Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge or Pardes).
Chakravyuh’s incendiary anti-business lyrics are not a deviation from the Bollywood norm, especially since it is a film about Naxalism. It is also an early recognition that the public does not like what it has seen of India Inc of late. Far from protesting the lyrics, India Inc needs to treat it as feedback. It has to leave crony capitalism behind and turn a new leaf. The song is anyway going viral on Youtube. Raising a fuss will only worsen things.
