Billion Dollar Cry Babies

193000 dollars. 86 lakh rupees. That’s the salary that Gaurav Agarwal will earn in a year from Barclay’s in London. Gaurav is the poster -boy of the fabulous placements – both overseas and domestic - that the IIMs have received this year. And he’s not alone. The IIMs have seen a 40 per cent jump in average and top salaries this year. Now the two young lads – Gaurav and Venkatesh Shankaraman (Take home Rs 30 lakh in India) have written to the Prakash Apte, Director, IIM B asking him not to disclose salary figures of IIM grads in future. They argue that top dollar salaries when reported in the media “…tend to catch the attention of unscrupulous elements and could cause immense physical as well as psychological distress for the persons involved.” They contend that salary figures are “personal” and therefore should be kept “confidential”. In response to this ostensibly earnest appeal, Prof Apte has responded saying henceforth there will be no media announcements of B-school salaries, at least with reference to IIM Bangalore. This development exposes both the naiveté of the students and the knee-jerk response of the IIM establishment.

The Indian Institutes of Management were set up by an act of Parliament. When the erstwhile NDA government tried to tinker with the fee structure of India’s leading business schools, the IIMs, cried foul that their autonomy was being compromised. A large section of the media, the business press, in particular, sided with them. Here was an Indian institution that attracts global talent and that has earned international repute and whose students are sought after every year by companies across the world. To let the government meddle with an institution of excellence seemed blasphemous. “Leave them alone,” said the media.

But now the IIMs have the tables turned on them. An institution set up by Government support and subsidy now seeks to rubbish the idea of transparency. Somewhere, these B-school babies seem embarrassed by their own success. They offer a naïve argument that “unscrupulous elements” will come knocking on their doors. Yeah right! the chota Shakeels and Abu Salems regularly scan the b-school placement list to hone in the next target. For starters, most top dollar employers at B-schools are listed entities; therefore, public disclosure of information about their recruitment plans is mandatory. Even if they are not, do spare a thought for those millions of b-school aspirants. When starting salaries are the yardstick for b-school ratings, it becomes the duty of the media to offer credible information regarding salaries, job offers and so on. Denying this information defeats the spirit of competition - the core spirit of the IIMs.

Rewind to 2001. The economy was not as robust as it is now. You had cases of top notch investments banks and tech companies withdrawing both placement and pre-placement offers. The students then, sought the help of the media, to argue that companies had violated all ethical norms by going back on their word. If the IIMs needed the media to campaign in their favour then, should they withhold information to serve the purpose of a few now? This selective disclosure clearly does not work. The IIMs clearly need better media management skills than they possess currently.

Case for CAS

CAS is back! The Delhi High Court says Conditional Access System should be implemented in the three metros in four weeks. This means, if you are living in Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata, you would need a set-top box to view pay television channels from April 1. In Sept 2004, when CAS was introduced, Chennai was the only city in India then that complied with this regime. The other State Govts protested and refused conditional access for television viewing in their cities.

While the pros and cons of CAS, as a concept, has been debated to death, the HC order now brings the issue of implementation sharply into focus. A few pertinent questions - Will CAS get entangled in a legal mess yet again? Will broadcasters (like Star did last time) throw a spanner in the works? Most MSOs/last-mile cable operators, that I spoke to in Mumbai, cite the Chennai example as a model for emulating. However, the fundamental difference between Chennai and the rest of India, in terms of television viewing, is that popular mass entertainment channels are Free-To-Air… therefore, CAS was easier to enforce. This is not the case in the rest of the country. So will there be consumer resistance to CAS? Are MSOs/Last Mile Operators ready for a rollout in a month? This would mean sourcing STBs, offering reasonably priced schemes for rental/schemes for STBs etc. And who regulates implementation? The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is toothless body without executive powers and unless the respective State Govts are willing to play ball, there is a hurdle there as well. Net net - a system that is designed to give the consumer the right to choose – once again runs the risk of becoming a casualty of vested interests and flawed implementation.

Varanasi and thereafter…

So here’s another bomb blast. Yet another case of ‘intelligence failure’. And as always, the Govt does its well-rehearsed charade of huddling into an emergency meeting after the incident, promises ‘immediate’ action to nab the culprits. Somehow, true to script, the next morning it guns down a ‘suspect’ on the outskirts of Delhi. He obviously has to have a Muslim name and ofcourse, his curriculum vitae has to boast of impressive brands. Interned at Jaish-e-Mohammed, headed Harkat-ul-ansar, militancy experience in J&K, has links to the dreaded Lashkar-e-Taiba. For all you know the bloke must have been roaming freely in Dhaula Kuan until yesterday, when the Delhi Police decided to use him for some target practice. Now why is that every militant who is shot dead/arrested has three or more aliases. And the cops do not even credit these terrorists with creativity in naming. Taste this: “We have apprehended a dreaded terrorist named Mohammed Yusuf alias Yusuf Mohammed alias Mohammed alias Professor Yusuf". And in the world of terrorist brands, the Lashkar is the undisputed number one. Even when in doubt, the India security agencies don’t seem to blink an eyelid before they point fingers at the LeT.
On a serious note, the attack in Varanasi brings the communal issue into sharp focus. Firstly, the blast will be viewed as an attack on the Hindu’s religious nerve center of Varanasi. That too, an attack on a Hanuman Temple – the monkey god who stands for strength, valour and courage. And that too, an attack during Aarthi time on a Tuesday. These facts are fodder enough for the Hindu right wing to rear its ugly head yet again. The scary consequence of this incident is that it brings communal tensions back in the reckoning. That’s exactly what the VHP and its ilk wanted. Didn't they?

Vaiko steals a march…finally

Cracks have appeared in the Democratic Progressive Alliance, the umbrella coalition cobbled together by Karunanidhi, to oust the Jayalalithaa regime. Vaiko’s Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) has switched sides yet again. Vaiko has been offered 35 seats by the ruling AIADMK for the May 8 polls to the Tamil Nadu Assembly. The immediate effect of the move means that Karunanidhi’s dream of repeating the DPA’s Lok Sabha victory in the assembly polls stands shattered. But the electoral ramification of the Karunanidhi-Vaiko split this time is far-reaching.

This is the second time that Vaiko has parted ways with Karunanidhi. In fact, the MDMK was born because of Vaiko’s first revolt. In the late ‘90s, Vaiko was the rising star in the DMK. His political acumen, fiery speeches and his aggressive stance on the Eelam issue earned him a berth in Karunanidhi’s inner circle. While political spindoctors were hailing Vaiko as DMK’s next leader, Kalaignar was hatching other plans. Stalin, his second son, was being groomed as the heir apparent of the political leadership of the party. Stalin’s promotion within the party was in direct conflict with Vaiko’s political aspirations. Therefore, when Vaiko revolted, quit and set up MDMK – it was perceived as a battle between dynastic politics and democracy. The MDMK’s stellar success in its first ever elections was testimony to the fact that the people of Tamil Nadu stood by Vaiko. They saw in him a man who had the ability to carve a distinct identity within the Dravidian fold. They saw in him a politician who had the gall to stand up against his mentor Karunanidhi. For he claimed he was wronged and the people believed him so. But those were different times.

With assembly elections less than two months away, Vaiko faces two major challenges. He needs to convince his electorate on two counts – why this revolt against Karunanidhi? And why join hands with Jayalalithaa?
Particularly, the logic behind this revolt has to be hardsold by Vaiko to his votebank. Here are a few facts that stack up against him. In 2003, when Vaiko was languishing in prison on charges of POTA slapped on him by Jayalalithaa, it was Karunanidhi who came to his rescue. It was Karunanidhi who bargained hard with the then NDA government to get Vaiko released from prison.If it not for Karunanidhi’s insistence on revoking POTA, Vaiko would still have been cooling his heels at Vellore jail. Although POTA was not repealed in its entirety even then, if not for Karunanidhi throwing his political weight on this issue, Vaiko would not even have got bail. Vaiko release from prison and his public “vow” to ally with the DMK are still afresh in public memory. Therefore, the Karunanidhi-Vaiko fallout, this time will be viewed as a sishya betraying his guru. A guru who helped in his moment of crisis. Secondly, it would require more than just political brilliance to convince people as to why he chose to join hands with Amma. It was the same Chief Minister who ordered his arrest under POTA! In fact, Vaiko has been vociferously against the Jayalalithaa regime on several issues.

Whilst the electoral arithmetic (35 seats offered by Anna DMK as against 20 offered by DMK) of seat sharing seems to have been the immediate trigger for Vaiko’s sudden shift in loyalties, the long term prospects of winning seem blurred. Vaiko's position now is akin to Abhimanyu in the Mahabharata. He has taken a bold step to enter the electoral chakravyuha. He has no other choice but to fight. And even if he wins, he needs to win big. Else, he runs the risk of being wiped out as a political force. Either which way, his relationship with his mentor, Karunanidhi and the DMK are over. Atleast for now.