MEDIA SYNDICATE, VULGAR SALARY AND COMPANIES ACT

Yesterdays’ handsome figures are today’s vulgar shapes, with a prominent belly moving a foot ahead always. Salaries too are not immune to this phenomenon. The advertisements read as ‘handsome pay and perks’ will be translated in to the ‘vulgar salaries’.

The revelations of the Hon. Minister Mr. Salman Khurshid and the stamp of approval by Mr.Ahluvalia led to hectic discussions in the Economic Times and other Gazettes of Commerce and Industry. In no time, let me borrow the term familiar to Keralites, this Media Syndicate came out clamoring to prove a few CEOs right and the nation wrong. Economic Times even wrote the editorial on a development affecting a few; the number could be counted on finger tips.

Now Mukesh Ambani takes 2/3 cut in his salary. Will they apologize to the public? They had spent more than enough space for proving him right and others wrong. They screamed that 44 crore salary is too less compared with that of US and conveniently forgot that there are staggering Bullock Carts and flying Ferrares on the same road in India. Of course, the Ferraries housing a few CEOs and bullock carts with their products. The majority of population in India earns less than a Dollar a day. They forgot it too. I am not for the income uniformity among beggar and the big B, but against unfairness of drawing 44 crores when an average Indian makes a mere 100 a day

Further, they also drew the difference in era, the yore days were gones with winds and now the globalization rules the roost. In the Times point of view, this salary is handsome, not at all vulgar. Besides, the Companies Act 1956 provides for it, the rule states that up to 10% of profit can be spent as salaries. This is something like an MRP; to us it is the abbreviation of Minimum Retail Price.

Let us not get rid of ‘age’. The Times speaks relentlessly of the present age. But this 10 percent provision is as per an Act aged more than 50 years. Though they are very much confident that the past is a tale told by some idiots, not a single line was contributed for amending the Companies Act 1956. Everything else has to be changed except the old laws which had shed its teeth.

Either our words and deeds often take different routes or we speak a lot and do a little. The seriousness of the Government is well under cloud, with the declaration of the Prime Minister that the Government has no plans to enact laws for trimming the vulgar salaries to handsome pays.

We may remember the recent media reports on the pay, allowances and freebies our MPs are entitled. They also compared it with that of the best in the business world and people thought on it a huge executive pay with no responsibility. The intention behind the revelation aims to prove that the elected emperors are lesser paid than the business tycoons, lest the words and deeds would move go hand in hand. Necessary enactments for curbing the indecent salary would have been initiated by now.

LET THE TRUTH TRIUMPH; SACH KA SAMNA TOO

A consensus on any issue among our Members is something very difficult to evolve; perhaps all such occasions taken together won’t outnumber the total number of the Ministries we met. Often it happens when the papers are on the table for a hike in emoluments of the members for the members by the members.


Nation witnessed that sense of consensus again with the members in high spirits zeroing in on a Start TV programme. A few words on the programme ‘Sach Ka Samna’ is an oriental version of the occidental ‘Moments of Truth’. Rajiv Khandelwal, the host will be quizzing the guest with some 21 deadly questions, absolutely personal, moving from personal to official to physical to sexual. Just give true answers to all the questions of the host and walk away exactly not with Rakhi’s hands but with a handsome one Crore.


Right, as you may doubt there is no room for any anxieties that the depth of the Marina Trench or the height of the Mt.Everest will once again be measured for as Sidharth Basu is the Producer of the Programme. Producer’s attempt is to set soil, cultivate, reap and market the truth exploiting the present demand-supply gap. All the men and women who are not allergic to truth will be welcomed to try a hand under the limelight. People suffering from Alzheimer’s when it comes to truth better remain at home.


Host ensures either of the two situations for the guest. Either you walk out with a handsome one Crore thinking how to spend it alone, nearer you are to the Crore farther you are from the family, Or you forget the truth, polygraph takes over and you loss both the handsome one Crore and the faith of the audience and sometimes the spouse too, if so lucky. (When one loses something gains something else).


As a buffalo need not be trained in swimming, Basu need not be taught of the ingredients of a successful programme. We are all peeping toms in someway or other and the programme provides enough to keep the voyeurs sorry viewers interest undying. Above all, a controversy serves better than the pages of millions worth advertisement thanks to our beloved Members. Our public faces whose life looks like books wide open, are all out against the programme. To Brinda and Sushma, it outrages the modesty of women and to others like Shantha Kumar, former CM of Himachal Pradesh and others are sure that the Indian Value system is under attack. Our ladies and gentlemen will soon be taken to streets to protect the Indian Value System which even survived Macaulay’s mortal blows. Not so long before, one of our beloved poets shifted his allegiance to Buddhism, and during the ceremony, the Budhist monk asked the poet what he would do for Budha. His answer was that he will be defending Budha wherever and whenever necessary. The Monk famously said, “Budha is here for the last 3000 long years without your help”. Values never ever need any protection.


Shaking off the gender, caste, creed, ideology differences all our men and women join hands for pulling down the curtains for the Show. When all are on guard for our value system, a simple question peeps from above. Do our values, ethics and culture ever teach us not to tell the truth?

Not that’s the reason, our wise leaders view the worse days ahead. No one can predict what will be the sequel to ‘Moments of Truth’ in West. Imagination is not at all expensive. Just imagine the Channels there go ahead inviting public figures as guests and flashes the names of the men and women who rejects the offer during the programme. If Basu and others translates the programme to Hindi, and the Media Syndicate or Satans in Kerala into Malayalam, of course, the mansions of Indian ethics and value system won’t be razed to ground but the twin towers of reputation and character of our so-called leaders will touch the ground zero. So a stitch in time saves nine. It would be better if those clamoring for the ban on programme keep at least an arms length from the Mahatma, who never was afraid of truth, be it in personal or public life. The Mahatma holds a stick.