“Vulgar Salaries” of CEOs & Pious Politicians Salman Khurshid, The Union Minister of Corporate Affairs, has cautioned the corporates against “vulgar salaries of CEOs”. He has reportedly stated that when the government is talking of austerity drive they can not over look vulgar salaries of CEOs. To be fair to Salman Khurshid he said that salaries of CEOs should be decided by the shareholders and not minister but none the less it can not be over looked by the ministry. He expressed: "I don't think anyone in India today, in politics or outside politics ... has reached the level of liberalism where vulgarity is also a fundamental right.”….Haven’t we? What strikes me is the matter of fact statement in denial mode about “vulgarity being fundamental right”, albeit of politicians. When one looks at this dispassionately we have to accept that indeed it is so. Vulgarity in political arena is more than what Bollywood can boast of and in many ways. Most of the politicians with rare exceptions are crorepatis. If the crorepatis were banned from contesting, we may not have adequate numbers perhaps. Maharashtra assembly elections have thrown up 122 crorepatis. Most of them are in the bracket of Rs.10 crores. Even sarpanch level contestants for assembly seats are uneducated crorepatis. And one can be sure that the declared wealth is only a small portion of their total wealth. Crorepatis have not declared their PAN numbers! In Haryana, out of 90 candidates of Congress, 72 are crorepatis with richest having Rs. 43 crores assets. Madhu Koda increased his assets from Rs. 14 lakhs to Rs. 4000 crores when he was Chief Minister of Jharkhand with support of Congress. Isn’t this vulgar? Mayawati has multiplied her crores exponentially & declared her wealth as gift from her well wishers. Thousands of crores of public money are being wasted by Mayawati on statues in name of dalits and nothing can prevent her. Even Supreme Court is finding it difficult to change the situation. And she is not alone in amassed wealth. Any politician worth his/her salt is neck deep in the same mud. From where have they amassed so much of wealth when a highly qualified professional has to struggle all his life to make a crore? What is vulgar if not this?
When a CEO makes crores at least he has taken risk of investments and is well qualified with relevant experience and possibly academic qualifications also. He delivers to society through creation of job opportunities, linkages of suppliers and consumers, and dividends to their shareholders. Politicians are more known for siphoning public money than for delivering to society. If an industrialist is unreasonable with employees they can go on strike and resolve the issue amicably to get their dues. But when politician is making money, the only way for others is to follow the footsteps of the leader and make vulgarity as their fundamental right. Vulgarity is more in practice than in statute. A day is not far when there will be demand to make vulgarity as fundamental right in any other name. It is different matter that it may come from expected quarters of Bollywood in a different sense. Last few days of electioneering has seen another vulgar use of technology by the politicians contesting assembly elections in Maharashtra. There are calls on mobiles and when you take the call, you hear recorded messages from politicians. There has been spate of SMSes seeking votes. In spite of registering with the service providers for “DNC” (do not call registry) facility, how it is that unknown entities are able to send such SMSes on mass scale to public? Is the service provider not flouting the provisions of DNC facility and disturbing the privacy of the subscribers? The severity of such nuisance can be gauged by the fact that I got SMS at 1.30 a.m. from Ajit Pawar’s campaigner. What is vulgarity if not this arrogated fundamental right to disturb the citizens at mid night hour? It is time some NGOs take the telecom service providers & politicians to courts for such public nuisance. A Congress leader holding election rallies in rural hospital and school is another example of vulgarism being fundamental right of politicians! Congress leaders have stretched vulgarity by spending nights at houses of dalits in villages a la Rahul Gandhi for cheap publicity. They carried air coolers, fans, mattresses to the houses of dalits and got their own cooks to make biryanis etc. That must have been great humiliation for the hosts! The party was forced to issue a code of conduct to their leaders visiting houses of dalits. Mr.Salman Khurshid, that is vulgar display of disparity of haves & have nots. Austerity is not traveling by economy class with 56 seats around blocked for security reasons depriving airline of additional revenue or spending that
extra amount. If politicians can set their own houses in order and abandon pseudoausterity they will do great service to the nation. At least people would know how vulgar rich the politicians have made themselves while robbing people of their fundamental rights to have even sound sleep without SMS at midnight hour, to study quietly in a school or to struggle to get well soon in a hospital bed without disturbance. I think we have not only reached the level of liberalism, Mr. Khurshid refers to, but crossed beyond the point of no return. We have lost sensitivity and decency in conduct in public life. Vijay M. Deshpande Corporate Advisor, Strategic Management Initiative Pune Scroll down to visit my other blogs Or click on www.strami.com