Unfaithfully yours

Saw this piece of news on the Satyam fiasco today, that some top execs at Satyam were trying to undercut the firm, by pitching their own services, or that of rival firms, which perhaps they would join in the near future. I was aghast. It just can't get any lower. I mean, whatever happened to loyalty towards a firm? OK, ethics are the last things to talk about, when Satyam is in question here. Of course a scamster is anything but ethical. Just a few days before the notorious confession, came news of massive insider trading. And now, while 53,000 - some xyz people wonder where else they can find a job, since this scam has come at a time of a global meltdown, and the loss of a job for them means the prospect of a default on a house EMI, or extended working hours for the spouse, here are some xyz people busy sabotaging any chances of Satyam's survival, for their personal gain.

I then wondered whether this was an Indian phenomenon? The gross lack of ethics, and anything ethical. Well, a hijack of ethics happens everywhere. Martha Stewart. But she was jailed for insider trading. Thain and his multi-million dollar office makeover, got him a lot of negative publicity. So he went on air to say he'd reimburse the amount in full! So does that mean that non-Indians mess up, and then somehow atone for the wrongdoing? While we Indians screw up and feel happy ever after? Maybe yes. Its usually Indians who generally believe in one's own benefit, unmindful of the consequences. If you go and ask the erring Satyam execs, they'd say that Ramalinga Raju never bothered about them while siphoning out money into his sons' firm, and so why should they now care? Touche! Maybe our corporate honchos took lessons from our politicos, for whom poll speak is all about seat numbers, irrespective of the alliances. So, forget ideology, forget common minimum programmes, its all about numbers. That's why perhaps, now, in the run up to the elections, we see alliances after alliances being inked, we see clandestine meetings which apparently mean nothing more than a back thump between old buddies! But then where do such tactics leave the image of corporate India? Certainly nowhere near pretty and rosy.