Step down gracefully
The phrase “familiarity breeds contempt” may generally be true . However, the tale is different in the banking world where familiarity may at times end up breeding “dubious intent” instead of contempt. This can be impose huge cost on the nation as in the wake of recent spate of scams that have rocked the public sector banks as well as violated the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) norms.
The current CEOs at the ICICI and Axis Banks have been around for too long. These banks are listed entities with exposure to public investments. While operational risks arising out of non-rotation of staff have been highlighted by the RBI post the Punjab National Bank scam, the corporate governance failure risks associated with extreme long tenured bank CEOs seem to have been ignored. This could be catastrophic. Such entrenched CEOs by gaining a status of invincibility may throttle career progression, stifle new ideas and fresh thinking and indulge in turf protection. This may as well lead to a classic case of an HR disaster with a culture swell of sycophancy/cronyism.
In this context, we need to draw from the standards set by Infosys. This is one company which taught the corporate top managers how to rise and recede gracefully. The RBI initiative in this regard is laudable indeed.
G Venkataraman New Delhi not punished, does not hold.
By its logic, filing a first information report or initiating prosecution and conviction or punishment are indistinguishable. The apex court could have shown some sensitivity and avoided the observation that the Dalit protesters did not read or understand its ruling.
Given the kind of judgments that some judges and courts are coming out with, we are compelled to ask whether they are caste-neutral. It is ironical that there is no judge from the Dalit and tribal communities in the SC despite them constituting a considerable percentage of India’s population.
A greater representation for SCs and STs in the top echelons of the judiciary is needed to correct the unfair situation. As a marginalised and vulnerable community, the Dalits were quite within their rights to protest against the SC ruling diluting the safeguards written into the SC/ST Act to ensure their protection.
In downplaying the cause of protests and overplaying the manner of protests, sections of the media tried to deflect attention from the rightness of their cause — atrocity prevention. The Narendra Modi government filed a review petition to roll back the dilution of the Act out of compulsion rather than conviction. The Sangh Parivar has no reason to be unhappy with the rejection of the review petition filed by the government.
The dark-skinned indigenous people, driven to the margins of the society for centuries, are clearly refusing to be taken for granted and asserting their rights. Times are changing — Dalits are determined more than ever to not take the atrocities lying down and live under the shadow of fear. They have nothing to lose but the fetters of caste that chain them; they have a lot to gain — self-respect and dignity.
G David Milton Kanyakumari