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Postscript

Ingrate incumbent proper response to BJP which is hell-bent on consolidat-
ing India’s 85 percent Hindu majority behind it, is to in-
telligently ally with one or several anti-BJP parties which
EVERAL HUGE ADS FEATURED ON MARCH 8 are committed to non-discriminatory, religious secular-
in almost all dailies including the pink papers in ism that the leaders of India’s freedom movement and
Sremembrance of the late Aditya Vikram Birla (1943- founding fathers of the elaborate Constitution of India
95), proclaimed the judges, juries and awardees of the preached and practised.
22nd Aditya Birla Scholarship Programme. In addition to going it alone, Owaisi is making the
In the early years of the new millennium, this strug- strategic mistake of pandering to the orthodox Sunni cler-
gling publication was on the favoured list of Industry ics who have assumed leadership of India’s 200 million-
House, Mumbai and enjoyed the grace and benedic- strong Muslim community. Owaisi’s role model should
tion flowing from these annual ads. However in recent be Prince Karim Agha Khan who over the past almost
years despite EW having consolidated its position as the half century in cooperation with highly educated Ismaili
country’s premier education news magazine, this annual Muslims, has transformed his 12-15 million follow-
benediction has been withdrawn. This notwithstanding ers scattered worldwide, into perhaps the world’s most
AVB’s son and heir, Kumaramangalam Birla, being the prosperous non-Arab Muslim community. Among India’s
recipient of a complimentary copy of this sui generis Muslims who chose democratic India over theocratic
magazine for years. Pakistan in 1947, there are millions of well-educated and
This omission is the unkindest cut because in a enterprising individuals who can provide good political
previous avatar as editor of Businessworld, your diarist and economic leadership to the community, far better
highlighted the business legerdemain of the late AVB than the regressive clergy.
in several unprecedented cover features, and was the
first journo to interview and write a rehabilitative cover
feature on the much maligned G.D. Birla (1894-1983), Failed success
who established the Birla empire, the usufruct of which
K’Mangalam enjoys to the full. In this connection, it’s also NSURPRISINGLY, THE MAIDEN PUBLIC ISSUE
pertinent to note that in the heyday of India’s neta-babu of the public sector Life Insurance Corporation of
socialism, Birla-Tata and businessmen in general, were UIndia (estb.1956), which is likely to be launched
national hate figures reviled from every public platform. within the next few months, is generating heated excite-
Until your correspondent as founding-editor of Business ment in the stock market and within India’s fast expand-
India and Businessworld informed the gullible public ing investors’ community. The cash-strapped Union gov-
that they were actually heroes who despite every official ernment, the sole owner of the corporation, is set to offer
discouragement built the industrial base of the nation. 316 million equity shares equivalent to 5 percent of its
Although few will give them credit, these pioneer busi- total shareholding in the corporation to raise Rs.66,000
ness publications prepared the ground for the historic crore in the largest public issue in Indian history.
liberalisation and deregulation of the economy in 1991 Certainly the corporation has come a long way since
from which Industry House and its ingrate presiding 1956 in the prime of Nehruvian socialism when more than
incumbent have benefited mightily. Hence the heartburn. 200 private life insurance companies doing business in
India were nationalised and amalgamated into LIC. But
Strategic mistake within a year, LIC was embroiled in the Mundhra scandal
which led to the resignation of Union finance minister
T.T. Krishnamachari. Subsequently, it rapidly morphed
OMMENDABLE FACTS CHECKING BY SEVERAL into a typical public sector enterprise swarming with
online news portals, including Quint have refuted clerks. In 1979 your diarist, then editor of Business India,
Csocial media reports that the BJP won 165 of its 255 wrote the first ever detailed cover feature on this corpo-
seats in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh legislative ration, which had acquired a notorious reputation for
election by less than 2,000 votes, and that the All India rejecting insurance payout claims on flimsiest pretexts.
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) — a political To the extent that a Supreme Court judge described it as
party promoted by the Hyderabad-based Asaduddin “a corporation without a heart”.
Owaisi — had “scored generously” in these 165 constitu- Nevertheless, the forthcoming LIC public issue is likely
encies and split the Muslim vote. Nevertheless, there’s no to be heavily over-subscribed. According to stock market
doubt that in numerous constituencies, AIMIM played mavens, after the government calibrates the premium
spoiler. Many Muslim votes harvested by AIMIM would payable on its shares, the corporation’s market cap is
have gone to the Samajwadi Party, which with 111 seats likely to balloon to Rs.22 lakh crore transforming LIC into
came a distant second to BJP in the 403-strong UP legis- the country’s most valuable company, ahead of Reliance
lative assembly. Industries (Rs.16 lakh crore). Yet with the Union govern-
Undoubtedly Owaisi, a London-trained barrister, is ment divesting a mere 5 percent of its equity sharehold-
well-versed in constitutional law and an articulate spokes- ing, LIC will overwhelmingly remain a slothful public
person of India’s 200 million-strong Muslim community. sector enterprise. In the past 60 years during which it was
This minority has been at the receiving end of Hindu an elephantine monopoly, it managed to provide insur-
majoritarianism and hindutva politics skillfully practised ance cover to a mere 3 percent of the adult population.
by the BJP dispensation at the Centre since 2014 and in In the US, 54 percent of the population is covered by life
UP — India’s most populous state — since 2017. Yet the insurance. At best, LIC is a failed success.

100 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2022