The truth about Satyam is out there

I was in Delhi on the morning of Whacky Wednesday, reading horror stories about a young woman who had been violated by a group of boys in Noida. The lady in question, a 24-year-old MBA student of an upmarket B-School, was returning from an upmarket shopping mall with a friend of hers when the boys, returning after a cricket match, cornered the duo at a secluded place. The boys forced them to another secluded place outside their village and forced themselves upon her. The girl was courageous enough to report the matter to the Noida police and the culprits were arrested soon after.
Nothing shocks me anymore about Delhi and its suburbs but this incident was way too terrible. The village elders justified the boys’ crime saying city slickers have spoilt their culture. How dare this man have one woman in his car, they asked, when boys in their village go to schools where there is one girl for around 15 boys.
What’s the big deal, they asked.
Just as I was shaking my head in disbelief, TV started flashing news of the biggest fraud of our times. (Note to self: Really?) Satyam’s Ramalingu Raju had been lying through his teeth about the financial health of his company. Just as Warren Buffett, the legendary investor, thinks silver is the final frontier, our erstwhile tycoon thought land was the best bet and was accumulating vast tracts of it – over 6,000 acres, to be precise. This, apparently, led to his fall from grace.
What’s the big deal, I asked.
Agreed that he committed a breach of trust and conspired to cheat people. Many of our PSUs went sick more or less in the same fashion.
But whom exactly did Raju cheat?
The investor? The man who looked at the balance sheets of the company and invested his hard-earned wealth and then some to benefit from India’s IT story? Probably not. Because most investors in India are gamblers anyway, making money out of intra-day trade or by profiting from a company’s growth but exiting at the first sign of trouble. And in any case, some are still buying the Satyam stock after it hit Rs 6.90 on Friday coming down from its peak of Rs 542 in May last year.
The Indian janta? The people who used to crow about how home-grown companies such as Infosys, Wipro, TCS and Satyam are taking on the world? Probably not. Because public memory is short and most won’t skip their breakfast just because one Raju managed to fool all the people all the time (well, almost).
The media? Those beacons of light who religiously report that a substantial number of the richest in the world are Indians? The people (yours truly included) who got fooled into going gaga over Satyam winning awards for corporate governance? (Of all the things, imagine!) Probably not. Because they’ll have their revenge anyway.
My guess is that the only people Raju really cheated are his employees. Those 53,000 people (note to self: update the figure after the real audit) who toiled day and night for him. Those 53,000 people who thought their lives were made and bought cars and homes on huge loans looking at their 8-figure salaries. Those 53,000 people who were the darling of all marketers then but no bank wants to touch now.
The young woman in Noida will probably never get over her trauma and will forever be scared of young men, especially when she sees a crowd.
The employees of Satyam will probably never get over the shock of daylight robbery and will forever be scared of balance sheets, especially when they look for the next job.
And the investor, the Indian janta or the media? Oh, never mind them. They will find many more Rajus and Satyams to slap around in the days to come.