INDIANOIL-Bagalore DO

It was sometime in 1971. Divisional manager was B.C.Rai. It was my fist posting at Davanagere as Sales Officer (UT). Vinay kumar, who joined a couple of months after our batch, was at Bangalore for training. Saturdays were half working days. I was summoned to Bangalore for a review, which those days meant dressing down sessions. No opinions were sought, no solutions given, it was just a municipal school class room ( I studied in a municipal school) with a teacher who never smiled and used his cane liberally. Only thing missing was cane. But the verbal onslaughts made up for the cane. No one came forward with suggestions, not even the assitant District managers.
Vinay was married and his wife had come from Hyderabad to spend a weekend with her husband. At 1230 Vinay saught his leave from office from an ADM, who disapproved. When Vinay wanted to see the DM he was told that he would be torn apart. Nonethe less Vinay entered DM’s cabin and saught permission. DM came down heavily on him. Vinay told him his wife was waiting for him and that it was necessary for him to go. DM told him he too had a wife. Vinay just said may be your wife does not wait for you but my wife does and left.

B C Rai was a sick person, I mean mentally. On one occasion, in a meeting, he pulled out a photograph from his pocket, showing it to us asked, do you know this handsome man? At times he would ring up Branch sales Manager and tell his PA, “your future BSM is speaking”. I thought he needed psychiatric treatment. But the fact remains that many officers had to suffer him.
He managed my transfer to Warangal. Before my relieving letter was given to me, I had to attend a review meet. B C Rai had worked for about ten years in Burmah Shell before joining IOC. I was on tranfer and had nothing to lose, so I decided to ‘give’ him. I very politely asked him in the presence of all officers, “Sir, how long did you work for Shell and what was your position”. He very proudly said,” For ten years as DSR (District Sales Representative)” I again very politely asked him,” Sir, you must have done great work.” He nodded. My last question was, “ how come you did not get a single promotion in ten years?” There was stunned silence.

INDIANOIL-Travesty of truth

During my farewell, a very senior manager, spoke a lot of good things about me. Though at a farewell party it is customary to speak good words, I knew he was right. He made one reference to my having “blasted” an ED for mispronouncing my name. He had obviously heard it by word of mouth. We all know what happens when narration of an event goes from one person to another. He may have heard exacty what he said. But it was a single fact of the entire incidence.

Unintentional misrepresentation is one thing. Though damages the truth, it may be considered innocent. Travesty of truth is quite another matter. An incidence has many facts. If you pick up only one fact and keep highlighting it, it amounts to travesty of truth.
A particular fact picked up on intention from a group of facts distorts the real incidence.

In 1996 I was in Chennai as a Manager Marine. New GM was posted from OCC just then. From the day he saw me he let it be known he did not like me. He behaved like a senior student bully in a secondary school. He accorded me non-person treatment. He would ask me something and even before I said a thing he would say, “ I know you don’t know it”. I am basically very courteous, but if insulted I give back come what may.

Many of the senior officers who knew me advised me to ignore, as it was GM who was involved and he could damage my already damaged career. I took their advice. But GM continued to target me. When I narrated this to my friends in the guesthouse, I was staying in transit guesthouse; they could not believe that I was swallowing the insults without a murmur.
He was very arrogant. Whenever I went for his signature he never permitted me to sit and ordered coffee for himself. He was like a schoolboy bully.
One day he called for a meeting of all section heads. Since my section head was not in the office I was summoned. There were about ten of us attending the meeting. He asked me if I called on the PhoomPuhar office for collection of outstandings. Even before I could say anything he said, “ I should know you cant even talk leave alone convince”. This remark infuriated me and I said, “this kind of bullshitting has to stop”. He shouted saying I should mind my language. I told him “ you are lowering the prestige of the chair you are occuopying. You have been insulting me for no fault of mine. What is it that you don’t like in me—my name, my face, or my identity. You deliberately mispronounce my name knowing fully well what it means”.
( bangi in persian means one who calls for prayers and bhangi in Hindi means a scavenger. And all those who have lived in the north know it, and this man lived in the north India for a long time.). A functionary of officers’ association, who was present in the capacity of a section head tried to interrupt me and I told him to shut up as he never bothered to protect his officers from being humiliated. GM was dumb founded and did not utter a word and proceeded with the meeting.

I was surprised to find all officers congratulating me on my “courage” after the meeting was over.

An hour after the meeting was over GM called me to his office and asked me why I chose to say all I did in the oresence of all the officers. I told him I had to do it since he insulted in the oresence of all. He offered me a cup of coffee.

Thereafter he was very courteous to me, pronounced my name properly. At times when he saw me in Sarvana Bhavan, he insisted on paying for my coffee.

It is another matter that he did take revange. That is another story.

Just a thought

Truth half spoken is truth not spoken. Truth, normally, is a group of facts. If one picks up one or two facts from a group of facts, one is not speaking the truth. This happens often. It cannot be called a lie, as the facts chosen and given are facts. This is an art; every journalist is required to master.

In any organisation the wrong decisions, when they come to light, are viewed seriously and if necessary the wrong decision maker is reprimanded, if grave, punished. But Judiciary is different. A lower court passes a judgement based on the investigated facts by the police presented by the prosecutor with evidence to prove the charges, which the defence fails to defend. If the aggrieved has means he appeals in high court. High court reexamines and passes its judgement. If the aggrieved is acquitted, the high court condemns police for failing in its investigation, but spares the lower court whch passed judgment based on the same investigation. If the high court judgement acquits, the police go to Supreme Court. The highest judiciary passes a judgement, which is different from judgements of both lower court and high court. The apex court also passes strictures against police, but spares both the lower courts. If there were to be still higher courts!
Judges can pass wrong (is this word in this context contempt of court?) judgements without fear. What happens to a person who cannot afford to appeal to a higher court?
NGOs are very selective in rendering help.

Naxal Terror

Why have we not been able to destroy terrorist training camps of Naxalites?

“The most significant indicator of the rot is that 150 of India's 600 districts are now affected by Naxalite violence. The rot is worsening, not improving. Can such a country really become an economic superpower?”
Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, Saturday, June 24, 2006 09:23:14 pm TIMES NEWS NETWORK.

Afterall Raju is 'manavadu'

Today is Sunday the 8th Feb 2009 and Sunday Times carries three headlines on satyam:
1)Satyam fudging well planned. Dozens of Managers attended Scores of fudge meetings. (First page top headline)
2)Rajus get comfy in jail (second page)
3)Rajus in ‘proactive’ custody: Ex-Sebi chief. (third page prominent headline).


Contrast this with reporting in Deccan Chronicle of the same day.
A small column on front page, 'Raju gets jail till Feb.21' continued on page two summerising all that TOI did, in just a small report and in a very light vein. Is DC sympethatic to Rajus? Is it ‘manavadu’ feeling or is there something more?
I thought everyone was equel before law but police and judiciary possibly think otherwise.

The following is reported in the Statesman,which also shares my doubts.
Raju in ‘protective custody’, says Damodaran
Press Trust of India
AHMEDABAD, Feb. 7: In a biting criticism of Andhra Pradesh police's handling of the Satyam case, former Securities and Exchange Board of India chief, Mr M Damodaran today said the firm's founder Mr B Ramalinga Raju and other officials were in fact in “protective custody.”
Mr Damodaran, who demitted office as chairman of Sebi last year, suggested that there was no other way of looking at it given the weak resistance the police put up when the court remanded Mr Raju to judicial custody.
“Instead, the police happily handed over them (Raju brothers) in judicial custody, so that Sebi needs to get the court's permission first (to quiz them),” he said during a seminar at the IIM-A here.
When a Sebi probe team approached a magistrate court for permission to interrogate the Raju brothers, the petition was dismissed on technical grounds. As AP High Court too did not give early relief, the regulator had to finally move the Supreme Court.
The Sebi team yesterday finished questioning the Raju brothers on the accounting fraud in Satyam Computer.
“This is what I call protective custody of the Raju brothers and (former) Satyam chief financial officer, Mr Srinivas Vadlamani,” Mr Damodaran said.
“I don't know how the law will help when the state decides to provide protective custody,” he asked.
“This is a peculiar case in which the police produced a person before the court and (he) was granted judicial custody, not police custody,” Mr Damodaran noted, adding that normally policemen insist on securing custody of the accused in order to talk to them first and extract vital details. That is why they arrest people.”
On reports that Mr Raju was seeking special status and also mosquito nets in jail, he said sarcastically: “I don't know how brave the mosquitoes are to go near him.”
The matter of special status is still pending before the court.
On the rejection of Sebi's plea on technical grounds, Mr Damodaran said: “The lower court took a preposterous position that it was not a court that handles cases related to securities law. The Sebi application did not say that a case of securities law needed to be judged by that court.”
I have taken this Statesman report online because TOI online did not carry this report whereas their print edition did.

Terrorism

Terrorism is bad. And terrorism in the name of religion is worse. There are innumerable terrorist organisations world over. Only Muslim terrorists call their outfits with names, which are obvious of religious affiliations. These terrorist Muslims have given bad name to their own religion. Come to think of it, are we right in calling them Muslims? Ireland has terrorists who are chritians, Shri Lanka has terrorists who are Hindus, India has terrorists who are Hindus (Naxalites), Manipur has terrorists who are Hindus and in India itself we have terrorists in Nagaland who are chritians.

Religion has always played a significant role in pulling crowds. It was Bal Gangadhar Tilak who brought Ganesh to street corners. He knew that only in ganesh pendals could he address the masses about India’s dream of independence from the British. Bapu began and ended his speeches with bhajans.


Though the terrorist plans have failed because of good inteligence network, the fact remains that Britain, US, India and Israel are victims of psychological terror. The amount of tension that they are subjected to is worse than after effects of terror. Air passengers are afraid, security personnel are tense and on a slight suspision flights are held up. This is also a kind of success for terrorists. Or, as MJ asks, was there at all a liquid bomb?

Why is there so much of terrorism?

I worked in Imphal for nearly four years, which, I think, gives me enough credibility to rationalise. Manipuris felt, and quite correctly, that they were being exploited. This place has a strategic border with Burma. Manipuris, like Bangalis, consider manual labour below their dignity; it is quite another matter that their concept of dignity is misplaced one. So you have a large number of Bihari working as coolies. Manipuris are a relaxed people, and hence the business community is Marawaris.

They know that India needs Manipur. Bengalis have for long ill treated people from almost all the states bordering West Bengal. They were the first to embrace English and the English. If you don’t believe me read Ananda Math by Bankin Babu. British were the saviors from the demon called Muslims.

This was a right atmosphere for China to exploit the situation. Exploitation of an opportunity takes place when an opportunity is provided.

Sikh community was frustrated because they worked hard to bring green revolution and the fruits of their labour went to Lalas, Hindu traders. It all began as an agrarian problem. One has to pay the price of exploitation sometime or the other, but pay they must.

Kashmiri Pundits never treated Muslims as equels. A Brahmin is perhaps superior within the Hindu society not globally. They must keep their concept of superiority within the boundaries of Hinduism. Indian secularism is a wonderful concept. In practice it is set-aside in a very sophisticated and subtle manner.

Raju the genius

Ramaling Raju was an important person during Clinton’s visit to Hyderabad. While rahul Bajaj was in the back row, Raju was at the mike. He is undoubtedly a genius. Only a genius can play a fraud of such magnitude, as did Raju. What a brilliant brain!

He is now in prison. May be he will get bail and then exemption from personal appearance in the courts of law. There after he will lead a normal affluent life.

Our own government is very serious on bailing out Satyam. Afterall they work for five or ten percent of the population. What percentage of employees and their families exercise their franchise? Are they part of our democratic process? Why should the government squander taxpayers’ money on these people?

I personally think that the government should hand over the management of the company to its employees and let them manage it as a cooperative enterprise.
Or recover or seize all the assets of Raju and all his family, including their land holdings, agricultural and non agricultural, and auction all that and take over as a public sector on par with any other PSU and give the employees the same benefits that BHEL employees get.

No political party should worry about the votes because none these employees exercise their franchise any way. Government has an opportunity to show now that they do not work only for ten percent of population.