Corporate fraud needs a more vigilant media

BY B.P. Sanjay| IN Media Practice | 14/01/2009

The road through the Hi-Tech society, aka the ¿Knowledge Corridor¿ in Hyderabad, nee Cyberabad, is in a way a paradox. Residual decrepit structures, and small shops struggle for attention amidst an array of the "in thing" retail outlets, multi- cuisine restaurants with fancy names, fitness and spa centres, swanky hi-rise apartments, the cyber towers, and the now the beleaguered Satyam Towers.  The two important traffic junctions on this stretch bring to mind images from Madhur Bhandarkar¿s movie, Traffic Signal. 

Cars of all make vie with the white taxis and share-autos that ferry innumerable support staff. Youngsters with the familiar badges of the IT companies are visible everywhere. It is amidst this new symbol of modern India, that Hyderabad vigorously competed for a key and vantage spot on the IT map of the sub continent. Ramalinga Raju, the former CMD of Satyam, now languishing as a middle-class prisoner in the famous Chanchalguda prison, was the key driver of the envious position that this city enjoys(ed).  Fiercely supported by clannish and community sentiments, nurtured and promoted as the poster boy of the state by all political parties, his and the company¿s rise to fame and recognition is now legion. In hindsight, the contribution of Satyam and other companies in engendering a strong force of knowledge workers cannot be undermined. The starry career paths for the youth, dotted with short term assignments abroad, and the EMI-enabled support to real estate, perhaps allowed for avariciousness to overtake genuine governance,

The media, particularly the English print media¿s response to the admission of fraud by the Raju brothers was therefore cautious, and also reflective perhaps of the harm it would do to the psyche of one section of the middle class that has enormous faith in this industry. It was also a case of the usual hype that is created by the media, based mainly on well-oiled corporate communication content that makes them complacent and not scrape the surface. In fact, Rajdeep Sardesai mentioned  in passing in one of the weekend shows that  the media is not as prying as it ought to be when it comes to corporate India.

Thus, from the time of the unsuccessful bid of the Raju brothers to invest in their offspring company, Maytas, to the confession and delayed surrender to the DGP (a rare privilege that the media is now harping on), the media was caught unawares except in reporting on what the company said. Both the public, and more so the media, perhaps, completely ignored what E Sreedharan of Delhi metro fame had sensed a few months ago. However, in the past few days it has been the main and most intense story for the press and electronic media. The attempt to balance the interests of the 52000 employees, upholding the corporate image of the country, infusing investor confidence etc seems to be the communication track. Tracking reluctant political parties¿ reactions and comments, underlies the clout of the Raju brothers. The nitty-gritty details of the arrests, confession, lawyers¿ perspective, corporate India¿s plea to treat it as an aberration, occupy the liberal space provided by the three leading English dailies.

Interesting sidebar stories of how a police station is named after Satyam add spice to the detailed coverage in the Times of India. The Hindu was staid, did not overdo the coverage and added its own editorial caution on what should be done. The Deccan Chronicle  was content to say in its headline, "Raju brothers arrested finally." Weekend shows of the two high-profile English television channels featured the usual and balanced panel, and it clearly lacked the aggravated hype they normally create. To say that the media downplayed the fraud may not be correct, but somewhere one got an impression that they did not want to go overboard or initiate a trial or candle light march by investors and worried employees. Lower middle class and weaker-section families whose members have been arrested for petty crimes could not contain their anger at the VIP treatment accorded to the Raju brothers. The fact that the brothers spent the night on thin mattresses  with bootleggers, or the frugal meal they were given at the jail was  also featured in the media to satisfy the cathartic perceptions of the readers, and uphold "all are equal" before law image of our governance system.

It is a developing story of greed and the extraordinary manipulative skills of a few well-connected individuals with across-the-spectrum support, including that of the media. What intrigues the ordinary Indian is how a high profile Board, and an ever vigilant and omnipresent media could be silent and appreciative spectators to the fraud.  Consolation remarks that even the US media could not fathom or foresee the Enron imbroglio adds little weight to the otherwise lofty claims of the multiple channels, or of the  variety of business press and eminent panelists who could not educate us of the pitfalls in the meteoric rise of the "Telugu Bidda", as he is affectionately referred to by the local public and media.  When we had a Harshad Mehta, we promised ourselves that media would be vigilant. Perhaps it is time for the media to go beneath the veneer of glossy reports, corporate shows and know-all solutions for every problem to ensure that alarm bells are rung before it is too late.

bpssn@uohyd.ernet.in