Jan

8

An ass riding a tiger

January 8, 2009 posted by indiatime |

And for what?
For a little bit of money.
There’s more to life than money, you know.
Don’t you know that?…
And here ya are,
and it’s a beautiful day…

- Marge Gunderson (Fargo)

Satyam ex-chairman Raju who quit yesterday amidst a shamefully scandalous show and tell, after ruining thousands of lives and stealing billions, described his deceitful CEOship as riding a tiger without knowing how to get down. Raju’s weird gloat doesn’t do enough justice to the imagery of an egotist ass riding a wild tiger. An ass who thought too much of himself, made asses of everyone else, and above all of the country that put him on pedestal trusting him to be one of the pillars and pioneers of its technological odyssey.

Panchatantra, Vishnu Sharma’s famous 6th century book of fables, tells the story of a donkey who donned a tiger’s skin, hoping to get more food. This donkey, in tiger’s garb, would go to a wheat farm and ate all he could eat without fearing the farmer. But one day, hearing another donkey nearby, the donkey in tiger’s garb began braying, giving up his real identity. And then he got beat up for being a donkey.

Ramalinga Raju pretended to be somebody he wasn’t. And his investors pretended to be somebody they weren’t. At the end of the day, it’s hard to figure who the real donkey is here. Because company chairman Raju couldn’t jump off of his tiger. And the investor wouldn’t jump off of his tiger in spite of numerous warnings, reports and indicators of high profile investigations, international lawsuits, resignations, speculative biddings and buying sprees and most of all unbelievable cronyism.

There are more than enough take-home lessons here, but today I will stick to the one brought out by the Panchatantra story. To not pretend to be what one is not. And I don’t mean that for the chairman. I won’t shed a single tear if he is beat up. I mean it for the investor. Try to stay close to what you know about. It’s easier to track the deluge of information in an area you are already aware of than in an area that you don’t know a thing about and have to take someone else’s word for.


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2 Comments so far

  1. Joseph Christie, Ph.D. on January 8, 2009 6:43 pm

    While B. Ramalinga Raju is in Hyderabad, he ought to contact another fellow Andhra crook, M. V. Manohar, the fraudulent owner of Radisson Hotel near the airport. This rascal cheated more than 400 American Indians promising pots and pots of money ( a very profitable ROI) when they invested their hard earned money in his bogus outfit, Shakthi Gas. He bolted away with the cash, and as an unsuspecting NRI, I lost ALL my investment in Manohar’s outfit more than 15 years ago. WILL THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT NAB AND THOROW THIS SCOUNDEREL BEHIND BARS?

  2. Ashvini Kumar on January 8, 2009 7:16 pm

    I think in this case, the certifying and auditing “ass” should also be whipped properly and thrown out of India - barring PWC from any kind of transactions in India.

    They have issue press note that “PWC has been auditing according to standards!” What a shame!!

    Satyam & PWC are equivalent of Enron & Arthur Anderson!

    And knowing indian corruption, I can confidently say both these asses will go free without punishment!

    Certainly India is turning into a “Rama Rajya”………..

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