India Inc: AA size, but no battery?

Invariably, and almost everywhere, politics and big business are a matter of ‘running with the hares and hunting with the hounds’. As the political discourse plummets to ever new lows in the ongoing elections, it seems anything goes to blemish any opposition to Narendra Modi’s quest for a hat-trick in election wins.

True to this form, he threw another firecracker into the cauldron of the polls. Fiat-like, he decreed that Adani and Ambani were filling the Congress coffers with their black money, transporting tempo loads of them to the party he loves to hate. Rahul Gandhi retorted rhetorically, asking Modi how he knew so much about the black money of these billionaires and how they ferry them to political parties, and since he does know, why not let the ED and CBI loose on them. The Election Commission didn’t flinch in its coffin.

It was yet another way for Modi to belittle national discourse, steer away from his own performance, and box the Congress into a corner. But what he did this time was most befuddling, perhaps even self-defeating, for he was targeting two businessmen Rahul Gandhi has long accused of being Modi’s “friends with benefits”. In all this, one wonders, how would Adani and Ambani react to being spoken of like this by Modi, and because of him, by Rahul Gandhi, too? The moment transmitted in neon lights to India Inc: You are pawns in the larger political game. If need be, the PM shall drag you in the muck, and then his opponents will muddy you, too.

Shouldn’t Adani and Ambani act against Modi (and Rahul Gandhi) for defamation? And if they don’t – and they will not – what does it say about the state of Corporate India and its billionaires? Do they have a voice? Do they have rights? Adani is bashful now; he wasn’t when the Hindenburg report became public. Industry captains are unaccustomed to sit quiet post a barb. Their rapiers are usually at the ready, but not for the government.

How is it that India’s largest businesses are treated with random contempt, converted into wedge issues in a national election? What does it convey to the rest of the industry? Will FICCI or CII or other major corporate bodies issue a statement condemning the latest onslaughts? Unlikely. This is so, as they’re only too aware of what’s become of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

But a voiceless Indian industrialist is not a new phenomenon. With the exception of Rahul Bajaj and his son Rajiv, has one ever heard an industrialist criticise the ruling dispensation? One would have expected India Inc, its industry captains, and its tech nobles to speak up and show some spine. But it’s obvious they know the price they will pay for speaking up.

In public, billionaire industry captains may berate a captain of a losing IPL team they own, but not the country’s political captain (who runs on their Electoral Bonds donations) and his government that runs on their taxes. Here’s an exercise you can conduct yourself to decide what kind of courage of conviction our industry captains carry. Check their reactions on Union Budget day. Count how many industrialists have criticised the budget over the years and how many have hemmed and hawed even if they did not like it. Few call it as they see it.

India’s billionaires have flourished in the last 10 years. Governmental policymaking partly made it happen. In return, these elites confer their silence. Patronage has always trumped reputation. Even if you become prosperous, there may be some price to pay. India’s youth are regularly sold ideas of becoming entrepreneurs, starting start-ups. Industry captains must add two more elements to it: developing a thick skin, and eyes that can look away.