Page 76 - EducationWorld September 2020

Postscript

Latter-day Scrooge In the very same year, his annual remuneration doubled
to Rs.16 crore. Admittedly there is animus against
this latter-day Scrooge whose remuneration has been
HERE’S A MEMORY LAPSE WITHIN THE doubling every year. Res ipsa loquitor.
country’s smug establishment and middle class
Tthat the national Covid-19 lockdown has ruined
thousands of small-scale businesses and resulted in an Media Mephistopheles
estimated 18 million job losses in industry, especially in
the small-scale sector which pays meagre wages to 90 HE TRAGIC ALLEGED JUNE 14 SUICIDE IN
percent of the country’s 420 million labour force. Mumbai of Sushant Singh Rajput, a personable
Against this grim backdrop and latest news indicating Trising Bollywood film star, has transformed
that the national economy has contracted by 24 percent television into a media circus. A lurid latter-day tragedy
in the first quarter of 2020-21, a Times of India (August of sex, suicide, murder, conspiracy, drug abuse, financial
28) report flashed the tragic news that the annual shenanigans and political intrigue is being played out
remuneration of N. Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata in drawing rooms of rich and poor households across
Sons Ltd, the holding company of the salt to steel Tata the country. Leading the charge of the idiot box wolf
Group of companies (annual revenue: Rs.827,025 crore), pack is Arnab Goswami, promoter-director of Republic
plunged to Rs.58 crore in 2019-20 from Rs.66 crore in the Media Network and chief anchor of the Republic English
previous year. language television news channel, and indisputably the
In his path-breaking book Capital in the 21 st Century most infamous TV news anchor countrywide.
(2013), French economist Thomas Piketty laments that On his nightly prime time (9-11 p.m) show, partici-
since the 1980s, income inequality around the world pants with Goswami in the lead, outshout, badger, bully
has become sharply pronounced. Although he advocates and humiliate invited (reportedly for handsome consider-
additional taxation of wealthy citizens, this option is ation) guests, to the obvious delight of the public, which
unacceptable in India and other third world countries, has given Republic News the highest TRPs (television
because profligate, untrustworthy governments are rating points which translate into advertising revenue) of
notorious for wasting tax revenue and likely to dissipate any English news channel. Goswami is reportedly a post-
it by way of additional establishment expenditure graduate of Cambridge University (UK). Quite obviously,
and/or vainglorious projects. For instance, currently the one-year duration Masters programme of British uni-
over 20 percent of the tax and other revenue of the versities is not enough for learning good drawing room
Central government is swallowed up by establishment manners for which Brits are famous.
expenditure (salaries, rent, perks). In sharp contrast, a Be that as it may, for the past two months Goswami
mere 1.87 percent of the revenue of Reliance Industries has obsessively latched on to Rajput’s alleged suicide
Ltd, India’s largest private sector company, is spent which he insists was a carefully planned murder and/or
by way of establishment expenditure. Unsurprisingly, suicide abetment case, with terrier-like ferocity. In sup-
there’s huge resistance to higher income, wealth and port of his contention, he assembled a substantial body
other taxes. Hence, the sky-high pay packets of dozens of of evidence and a national signature campaign which
mediocre CEOs – including Chandrasekaran -- of India persuaded the Supreme Court to transfer investigation
Inc. into the case from the bumbling Mumbai police to the
The plain truth is that Chandra is over-harvesting the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). However instead
fruit of Tata Consultancy Services, the sole Tata Group of being content with this major victory, driven by TRP
company solidly in the black. And it’s pertinent to recall greed and megalomania, this runaway news anchor has
that TCS was built byte-by-byte by Fakir Chand Kohli continued his parallel investigation and pilloried the late
— widely acknowledged as father of India’s booming IT actor’s girl-friend, Rhea Chakraborty as the vamp behind
industry – during his long tenure (1968-2000) as CEO this alleged skulduggery.
of this now globally respected software development and For the past several weeks paying scant attention to
ITES (IT enabled services) company (annual revenue: major issues such as the rampaging coronavirus, China’s
Rs.157,000 crore; headcount: 443,676). Since the mid- incursions on the north-eastern border, and severe
1980s, TCS has been contributing over 80 percent of the contraction of the economy, Goswami has fixated his
net profit of the Tata Group of 30 major companies. amphibious stare on this case, now embellished with
A visionary and champion of quality foundational speculations of drug running, Bollywood debauchery
STEM education, Kohli was a staunch supporter of this and nepotism, political conspiracy and cover-up. But
then struggling education-focused publication. With to her credit, Chakraborty, a struggling actress, has hit
his support in 2007, we introduced the annual TCS- back in interviews with rival news channels tearfully
EducationWorld Teachers awards under which the alleging a vicious media trial, persecution and character
country’s best dozen government and private schools assassination by Goswami and Republic TV.
primary and secondary teachers selected by an eminent Slowly but inexorably, the tide of public opinion is
jury after testing and interview, were awarded modest turning against this latter-day media Mephistopheles
cash prizes, given media coverage and felicitated at a who blinded by greed and ambition, has clearly over-
grand annual function. reached himself. And far from winning public plaudits as
But as soon as Chadrasekaran was appointed CEO in a champion of the “forgotten middle class”, he is arousing
2009, he terminated this TCS- sponsored project (annual the hatred, ridicule and contempt of right-thinking
expenditure Rs.5-6 lakh) on grounds of “unaffordability”. members of society.

76 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2020