The Hindu Business Line : In crossfire of separatism

I was on a short business trip to Mumbai. Though I had to be on the other side of town, I was staying at the company-provided accommodation. As I checked into the hotel, the crew of an airline also did. I smiled at one of them and said hello. After a while, I went to have breakfast, and the crew was there as well. Due to lack of space, I had to share a table with a couple of them. They didn’t mind, and, away from home, I didn’t mind the company either. The y were from the same airline that had retrenched them a few days previously and then reversed the decision.

Unwritten rule

One of them, Geetanjali, told me she was relieved to be flying again. I smiled, and told her that in government and public sector undertakings there was an unwritten rule that, once hired you could not be sacked.

In the private sector, the rule was if you don’t perform you can be sacked. “In today’s world, was there a guarantee of a job if one did not perform?” I asked her. Hadn’t she heard of the American Way? If you ain’t working, you could be buried alive.

I mean there was, on the one side, this talk of globalisation and all that; and here was the Indian Way: If you hire me you’re stuck with me for life. I may not perform, I may not even turn up to work — like in the Railways, from which I can take a three-year absence from work, go and work in the Middle East, make some money, and then come back as if nothing had happened!

Sure, today, the Aviation Ministry may have pulled a few strings to accommodate those who were sacked, or perhaps the MD of the airline really had a sore conscience and decided to reinstate them. But the fact of the matter is that unless one performed, the job is not a guarantee.

Return on investment is going to be the prime factor that decides whether it’s worthwhile staying in a partnership or not. If you want the moolah then you’d better be prepared to sweat it out or they’ll get you out.

There was silence at the breakfast table, perhaps I sounded more vociferous than I intended to be. But I could not stomach the fact that while the average man — from the rickshaw-puller to the private sector employee — has to prove everyday that he is worthy enough to hold on to his jobs, here was a group which needed to be assured on a daily basis that their jobs were guaranteed, regardless of how they performed, or whether their organisations were profitable or not. They existed for themselves.

Angry mob

My phone buzzed, my taxi had arrived. I had to excuse myself. I grabbed my laptop and rushed to the taxi. Madan Lal, the taxi driver, greeted me and pointed to the newspaper in the backseat and the water bottle. “Relags Madamji, bhe hab to travel a long bhay,” he said in his best English.

Just out of the airport area and into the highway, I was startled out of my wits when a loud thud and a moment later a brick landed on my lap. In a moment the taxi careened to a halt and before I knew what had hit me, Madan Lal was surrounded by angry, protesting and vehement agitators. In a second, I knew we were surrounded by MNS workers.

They dragged Madan Lal out and in a moment he was shirtless, and beaten by the mob. They looked at me, asked me to get out. I grabbed my handbag and briefcase and rushed out. They were busy with Madan Lal and, even in his moment of agony and shame, he looked at me and, with his injured hand, urged me away.

I slipped into the crowd of bystanders and a hand pulled me down. A young girl of sixteen or so, sitting under an overturned cart, its wheels turning ominously in the ghostly silence that gripped the place, asked me to crouch beside her. In her hand she held a geography book which opened to the political map of India. I looked at her and then the map. The British united this country of ours, but failed to connect us. And even 60 years after Independence we are fighting Maratha against Bihari, Kannadiga against Tamil, and I don’t know who else.

I looked up from under the cart, and there was a correspondent of a foreign TV channel shooting away at the rioting and arson — did someone say ‘India Shining’ — and there were also a few cops, chewing paan and looking the other way.

Working hard, but…

Mumbai was burning. The matter boiled down to this: If there weren’t jobs available would migrants turn up at all? In London, our countrymen man the London underground trains, work in newspaper stores, petrol stations and do all kinds of odd jobs. Why? Simply because there aren’t enough people there who want to do these chores.

The young girl next to me said “all of this because we work hard and we do what these agitators and arsonists never do — a full day’s work.” I thought of my breakfast companions and all those who thought that work was a birthright.

Dreams were shattered, people killed, all in the name of what? What was proved? What was achieved? Get out North Indians, the frenzied mob screamed, while they dragged a man out from his jhoppad patti (hut) and began beating the daylights out of him. I cried that day.

India’s finance capital was burning all because someone wanted to make a point. Mera Bharat Mahaan? Or is it Mera Maharastra Mahaan? Or Mera Kerala Mahaan? What is it? Why are we promoting this separatist adventurism?

Are we headed the Africa Way? One continent but different countries? Is that the agenda, if at all there is one? I don’t see the same vehemence in nation-building. I don’t see the same passion and pride in our Indian-ness.

HR counsel

My day ruined, I decided to head back to the hotel, check out and then go home. On the flight back was a HR consultant. He was on his way back after advising a client how to trim the workforce in a humane manner. By being open, encouraging communication, innovation and ownership, by ensuring that accountability was high. I looked at him.

He said, “Trust me, there’s no way you can make an organisation work unless you’ve got everyone behind you. The days of ‘the boss is right’ are gone. These are the days of multiple owners and multiple stakeholders.”

I smiled at him. I wished he was there at the scene of the rioting. I wished he could say that to the mob that inflicted maximum damage on a mute and non-reacting ‘enemy’.

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