24 September, 2008

A Warning For Managements?

You must have read by now about the CEO of a Noida company who “was bludgeoned to death by a 200-strong armed mob of dismissed workers.” Well, here’s what Oscar Fernandes, the union labour minister, had to say about the killing:

This should serve as a warning for the managements. It is my appeal to the managements that the workers should be dealt with compassion.

So now you know whose fault this was. I can see in my mind the image of an old Hindi film in which Amitabh Bachchan leads an army of workers to deal with evil capitalists led by a suited-booted-goggled Prem Chopra. I don’t know if there actually was a film like that, but I wouldn’t be surprised—we’ve glorified this sort of vigilante justice way too much in our movies. I’m not blaming the movies for that—but I expect better from a minister.

Foolish, foolish me.

(Link via separate emails from Sidhu, Jignesh and Mahendra Shikaripur.)