Making Bharat

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech at CII’s Annual Session on May 24, has created a bit of furore in media. I am sure, most of the reactions to it – and I’ve seen a lot on TV over the weekend – have been voiced without hearing / reading the full text. What he said about doing a reality check on CEO compensation has received a lot of attention and comments. Probably the media played it up because it was a suitably provocative section and allowed for interesting sound bytes; except Mahesh Bhatt I saw almost all the usual suspects on TV holding forth their POV on the issue.

But the speech itself was exemplary – sharp content and very graciously delivered. The issue of what he termed excessive remuneration to promoters and senior executives was just one of the many things he said. And in all fairness, there is ample merit to it. Without mandating things, he urged corporates to show more sensitivity in rewarding themselves and temper the display of those rewards. And that’s a very edifying thought.

One can debate the specifics of how this can be done, but in principle, it is a very good thought. And not just for altruistic reasons. It may seem pedantic, but the more inclusive and equitable the growth story is, the more self-perpetuating it is. I am not sure of the ratios of CEO salaries to lower level worker salaries in the US or Europe, but I guess those comparisons are slightly redundant – not when our poor are as wretched as they are and not when farmer suicides are more regular than monsoon harvests.

The media makes these differences starker by showcasing them as trophies – the multi-crore weddings and parties and the vulgar triumphalism of economically successful celebrities.

In light of all this, some sanity and circumspection does help and all the good doctor has done is ask the most illustrious of our corporate chieftains to lead the way. As he said, “India has made us. We must make Bharat”.