A Small Note on Corruption

As a teenager I once asked my father, Papa how can we get rid of corruption in India like the developed countries have? He told me that these developed nations are also not devoid of Corruption, but, they have almost zero corruption at the level where government transacts with the public. Corruption is quite prevalent at levels where governments, politicians and corporations deal.

In the present times in India, we are only focusing on corruption at the level of corporations and government dealing and painting all politicians with the same brush which has given rise to some leaders over night. We are hardly interested in corruption at lower levels which affects us more.

Eradicating corruption at lower levels requires good governance and good governance requires a non populist approach which we all fail to understand or refuse to understand. This is because good governance would force us to step out of our comfort zones. In 1989 when NT Rama Rao of TDP lost to Congress many people where happy just because they will not have to wear helmets while driving scooters. This is our basic approach.

We have issues if women pillion riders have to wear a helmet, we have issues if we are stringently fined for traffic rule violations, we have issues if the government orders closure of bars at mid night. We have issues with most of the things which are actually good for us collectively as a society.

Now my liking for BJP or in fact parties like BJD, TDP etc is because they give good governance. They are also not able to ensure everything because they have to after all keep the voter happy. But, they have a strong will to improve system and make it deliver.

Next, my opposition to Congress is because it’s the oldest party and has ruled for quite a long time. Most (not everyone) of the people who have joined it ever since independence have had vested interests. Such people want to be associated with the people in power to push their personal agenda. These people look for “Satta Sukh”, the pleasure of being in power.

Such people have also joined parties like BJP, but, they get sidelined as they rise. This is because of the robust organizational structure.

In Politics one has to come to power and sustain in power to bring about change. In a scenario as mentioned above where people have issues in stepping out of their comfort zones, even a right thinking and progressive person also has to manipulate to sustain in power because power is his opportunity to bring about positive change in the society. I am sure that had Gandhiji been in electoral politics, he would have never become a “Mahatma”!

I would like to end with an incident. During college days, a student of some other college came to me and asked me to get some of his personal work done. I told him that he knew so many RSS pracharaks, why doesn’t he ask them for help? His reply was a bit surprising then, “Bhaya unko bataoonga to hone wala kaam bhi nahi hoga”.

All the Best!!

Irony of Contradictions

The other day, i was looking at one of my friend's honeymoon album (outdoor only) on FB. It was indeed beautiful, the location, the photography and his wife of course(with due regard)!.Other than all this beauty,i made one more observation. It was my friend's wife's attire. She was wearing shorts and a sleeveless tee shirt. This was a good combination which was getting along with her personality well. But,one thing that caught my eye was her hand which was covered with bangles from wrist to elbow. Although this was not the first time i had seen this attire, i have never been able to digest it. I sometimes consider it to be the effect of a mixed economy on our lives. I consider shorts and tee shirt to be symbols of liberation and physical comfort while bangles in the hand reflect the bounds of being a wife.We happen to mix everything and live in total contradiction.Ironically,or luckily, not even recognizing the contradiction!

Somewhat similar confusion exists in our business world as well. I very well remember the time when i used to prepare stories in order to save myself from a gang bang by bosses for having been unable to force in favorable specifications in the tender document issued by the customer. All stories used to be of no use because,mostly,it is only the best of the story tellers who rise up the ranks in sales management and have all the logic for negating your stories,the best story teller being your CEO. In professional words, as put in by my CEO, "a successful sales professional fights for his company in front of the customer and fights for his customer in front of his company". In practical terms, he has to be an adept story teller on both the fronts! Other than storytelling, our companies also expect us to possess unyielding integrity. Here,my logic fails me. How can one be an adept story teller(storyteller here is a person who covers his lies by telling interesting stories) and a man of integrity at the same time? Here also people fail to recognize the contradictions!

Let me put forth a case.All sales professionals(respectful address to salesmen), especially those who have handled government business, will easily recall the following statement of their bosses which comes soon after a tender which does not carry favorable specifications is advertised(only advertised not decided,all professionals will agree that deals are won and lost long before the tender is advertised). Tera account pe kya hold hai(as if customers were reporting to me)? This statement clearly asks the salesman to tell about the lobby that he has in that specific government department. Going by these words, every company expects its sales professionals to have a lobby in the government. As every company has a sales team for handling government accounts, we can imagine the level of lobbying that exists in the government.

If we agree with the above logic, we will have to appreciate the salesman(woman) ship of Niira Radia! Her lobby was so strong that she could lobby for the portfolios of ministers in the union government(choosing dumbest among the dumb so that she could get her work done). This is what a company expects out of its sales force. And, salesmen with such strong lobbying skills and powerful contacts are designated as CEO's and business partners of companies. 

Now comes the million dollar question. How is lobbying done? How can a salesman lobby? From the company's perspective,It is expected for a salesman to be a resourceful person for the customer.Resourceful such that he is a consultant for the customer and works towards mutual growth and benefit of the company as well as the customer. This is a statement which most of us would have read in the "vision" and "mission" statements of most organizations. But mostly, the level of resourcefulness lies in the ability of story telling. In any case, objective of all these"vision" and "mission" statements is dependent on the intent of the organization or the person who is representing the organization in front of the customer. Thus, Resourceful is a dangerous adjective. It has many meanings and when the prime intent of the organization as well as the person representing the organization is profit, being resourceful becomes even more dangerous.

Anyways, I would like to leave it for the reader to define" a resourceful salesman" considering their own experiences with salesmen and keeping in view the fact that the prime objective of this resource is to earn money. What i want to convey here is that we all are a part of this system. We get into an offensive mode when something like a Niira radia tape comes out. But, ironically,we aspire to become the same(minus controversy). We continue to live in the extreme contradiction like the woman wearing shorts and bangles, not even realising the contradictions of the situation. One factor, i can attribute for these contradictions could be compromises me make due compulsions. Compulsions of meeting our aspirations,aspirations which we develop looking at the world around! I would leave it open for readers to look for other factors. I hope we will someday come out of these compulsions and contradictions.If not come out,we will at least start recognizing them soon!