Wireless Wimps

I apologise if the headline of this week8217;s column sounds overly rude, insulting to the entire corporate class, particularly its sexiest...

I apologise if the headline of this week8217;s column sounds overly rude, insulting to the entire corporate class, particularly its sexiest new economy upper crust. That, in fact, is not the idea as much as it is to underline to them the power that is theirs in today8217;s political space, to provoke, stir and awaken even if these are such heavy words them into realising the blunder they commit when they merely bitch and whine from the sidelines when one obstinate minister is unleashing his cavalry to crush the very nursery of their talent. Or issue statements in decaffeinated English 8212; the minister is a good man but can he please, please, stop interfering in our IITs and IIMs? Or, put up well-meaning dummies 8212; two unknown IIM grads and one middling faculty member 8212; to file a PIL and get it in the neck from the honourable judges who want to know, and with very good justification, what the petitioners8217; problem is when the IIM managements seem not too bothered?

For more than a month now, since Murli Manohar Joshi made his move on the IIM fee reduction, the real victims of his control-mania have been searching for a way to stop him. They watched helplessly when he dried up all private funding, particularly contributions from alumni that were, happily, becoming bigger as their market caps rose higher. If these alumni could send in millions to 8220;government institutions8221; they could even have a say in what they were doing, and how, and so what was the almighty state all about? He therefore set up his by now infamous Bharat Shiksha Kosh. You want to do charity, you can8217;t always choose its beneficiary. Sure enough, if any money has come into the holy 8220;Kosh8221;, it is so little we don8217;t even know how much it is. And so many of the rich alumni are happier distributing the milk of their kindness to MIT, Cornell, their post-IIT/IIM alma mater.

The corporates also know they cannot let this go on. Can you imagine where their wage bills would go if they, too, have to hire their modern managerial talent from American universities which is where the best young Indian minds will go once an egomaniacal state has reduced our own IIMs to the same level of academic 8220;excellence8221; and professionalism as our universities or, more specifically, the once hallowed Allahabad University, the minister8217;s alma mater. But they are still too naive politically to figure out a strategy that might work. How can they take on a senior minister who has inveigled himself into a position of extraordinary power by deftly playing the BJP8217;s internal equations and who is much better than them in packaging this ruthless coup de grace in that unquestionable idea of larger common good.

It is a no-brainer. Ask a simple voter a simple question: high fees, or one fifth of that, what is better? It is also the question the honourable judges asked, and with good reason. Narayanamurthy and other such well-meaning folk can talk about interference, autonomy, affordability, whatever. But this is the real world, and the real world is that of politics, where public opinion matters. And here, it is a real challenge to convince anybody that higher fees are better than an eighty per cent discount, underwritten by the exchequer.

This story is much larger than Joshi versus corporate India. At one level, this is the last stand of an establishment shrinking in the wake of widespread reform to hang on to some prime turf. Conversely, it is the first time that corporate India has been forced to take on the establishment. They cannot do it by signing petitions, by getting sympathetic articles published in the pink press 8212; chances are Dr Joshi doesn8217;t even read those, given how he loathes capitalist, freemarket pamphleteering.

You cannot also do it by rushing to the courts with PILs. The PIL is a weapon for the meek and the helpless, or for those outside of a system. It is the weapon of an unknown citizen in Patna who knocks at his high court8217;s door to force the state to move faster to catch Satyendra Dubey8217;s murderers. It is the weapon of an environmental activist like M.C. Mehta, who brings in the judiciary to remind the executive of its responsibilities vis-a-vis a dying monument, a decaying sanctuary, our rotting air. A PIL, by definition, is not for you when your own interests are threatened. Indian corporates do not want the government to interfere with the IIMs because their autonomy is vital to their own growth and competitiveness. They must therefore fight this battle, in their interest, directly and not through dummies and proxies. They must also fight it politically.

It is not easy for a corporate class which, for decades, has got used to curtsying to the powers that be, pleading for licences, concessions, tax-breaks and for keeping the tax-man and the dreaded enforcement directorate off their spineless backs. It is missing the point that in a rapidly reforming India these power equations have changed and, happily, entirely in their favour. It is because it has spent nearly six decades toadying to the state that the corporate class is today so reluctant to go and join battle in that political space. This is the first election in India8217;s history where an incumbent is seeking votes on the back of the rich and the successful 8212; what are India Shining and the Feel Good Factor all about if not a celebration of the success of Indian business and enterprise, particularly in the new economy?

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Even a resolution from the CII and FICCI, demanding an end to all interference in IITs and IIMs, would force the right thinking people in the government 8212; and they are a majority 8212; to intervene. A memorandum to the prime minister signed by a hundred top corporates would have more impact than any PIL. The vital reality today is that the politician has smartly co-opted big business into his electoral and power space but the latter does not seem to realise it yet. Here is a government seeking re-election on the back of a rampant Sensex, booming exports, burgeoning forex reserves. The last thing it would like to see is a hundred corporates marching silently on

Parliament Street demanding something as reasonable as non-interference in the IIMs. It will work better than a sneaky PIL. And don8217;t tell me you are divided, that not everybody has the courage to come up front and question the state and so on. Look at us journalists. On each one of these counts, we are much worse. Given half a chance we would spike each other8217;s lunch or bloody marys with Baygon or rat poison at the Delhi Press Club. But when Jayalalithaa8217;s assembly decides to jail the editors of the Hindu, we immediately join the march right outside the same decrepit institution. You could start from the Reserve Bank building instead. It would even cut the walk by half and yet Dr Joshi, and his bosses, will be forced to take notice.

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