Local touch missing in Satyam board

21 Jan 2009


HYDERABAD: Scores of people gathered outside the Chanchalguda jail last week to register their support and express solidarity with the Satyam family. However, the fading clout of Hyderabad's `first' family or Satyam losing its credibility were not the only concerns of this crowd. What was bothering some the most was the absence of a Telugu member in the government-appointed board of directors.

That this feeling of resentment is rapidly growing among locals is obvious and even predictable given that Satyam was Hyderabad's first home-grown global firm and one that wore its Telugu identity on its sleeve.

"The Satyam fiasco is not just a certain company's personal problem anymore. It's a state problem. The issue has affected social and political situations in the state and, therefore, is no more related to corporate India alone. So the government should have taken care that somebody who is aware of the state's problems and local issues was part of the new board. I would not call it a bias against the Telugu community but the non-appointment of a local representative is surprising and disappointing," said Sudhish Rambhotla, film producer.

While the local community does not question the competence of experts like Deepak Parekh, Kiran Karnik, C Achuthan and others, they fear that the people of Andhra Pradesh might develop a sense of insecurity, due to the absence of a local representative. "If there was someone from Andhra Pradesh on the Satyam board it would have made the locals feel that there was someone to highlight their concerns and safeguard their interests. They would have felt more secure. And it is not like we do not have competent people here. There are a lot of them who could have been assigned the job," said D N Reddy, vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University.

Agreeing with Reddy, K Rama Devi, president of the Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of Andhra Pradesh added that the presence of a person familiar with the local conditions would have helped in the smooth functioning of the board and in safe-keeping of the local population's trust. "Their faith in the company would have increased had there been even one board member from the local community," she said.

Along with the fear of insecurity, there is also the fear of losing their identity. With the home-grown IT firm going into the hands of 'outsiders', locals feel that they will soon have nothing to boast of anymore. "If a board with no member from the state takes over Satyam we can no more call it an Andhra company. We can no longer be proud of housing the country's fourth largest IT firm. It is going to be a terrible loss for Hyderabad especially," said IT professional Kiran V.

However, there are some who feel that such concerns are not just justified at this point.

"Who cares whether the board members are Telugu or not. They are doing a fantastic job and trying hard to get the company back on track. We must not forget that they all have other jobs to keep too and this is just an added headache for them. Yet they are doing all they can to save the lives of thousands of employees and shareholders attached with Satyam," says E Sudhir Reddy, vice chairman and managing director of IVRCL, a construction firm.

That the matter of local representation is rather trivial at this stage when there are so many other important issues waiting to be addressed, is something that C K Shastri, managing director of Intense Tech (a listed IT firm) also agrees with. "At present, Satyam needs a panel that can raise the image of corporate India that has seen a beating worldwide, over the past few weeks. Whether the board members are Telugu or not is hardly an issue right now," he said.

So while some are still skeptical about the credibility of Satyam being restored by a board sans a local leader, others are confident that the government-appointed 'visionaries' will bring back the firm's past glory. "When so many efficient professionals are at work, to bring up such issues of regionalism is not right. Their being non-locals in no way makes them less capable of pulling Satyam out of this crisis," said Prof P L Vishweshwar Rao from the department of journalism and communications, Osmania University.