An Open Letter to Azim Premji Of Wipro

Dear Mr. Premji,
I like many have been an admirer of the company that you have built. Your entrepreneur skills and persistence, of your integration capabilities and diverse nature of your businesses, all this while were carrying a legacy baggage of an earlier generation business.
It all came to an end, while reading your views in times of India a few days back on the unnecessary spending of 28000 crores on commonwealth games; in fact, you go to an extent of calling any expense on sports as unnecessary.
It feels at this stage of your life’s achievements, crony capitalism and unrealistic philanthropy has taken over, as this cannot be a strategy. You have actually started thinking wrong.
• It cannot be denied that common wealth games, which are happening in India is an absolute bed of corruption, and better things could be done with that money. But you see, even if Rahul Gandhi did spend that money on MNREGA the fate of that public money would have remained the same. Government spending money they have not righty earned will always find the wrong hands. A person of your stature, when airs his view on gullibility of the social schemes and general tax paying citizen, who feels that sports is bad for the country and MNREGA is good.
• This is an absolute fallacy, MNREGA has almost 100000 crores outlay and not even 30 % reaches the needy, which also land up hampering the usual rural SME and Agriculture. Social schemes are a bigger disaster for India than common wealth games.
• You have mentioned about, Bihari’s getting unfair wages and perhaps they would have been better doing stuff back in Bihar. Well, the migrant laborers also built the metro project in Delhi and so many other projects, fair and unfair is an individual’s choice of staying put or going back to his village to dig earth. MNREGA is a way to keep the migrants at home and keep the cities clean of slums, but working for unfair wages and conditions happen due to better opportunities, infrastructure and life available in the cities. It will never stop, no country or civilization ever in the history of this earth has been able to stop migration, the migrants, with time, will earn their fare share.
• Wipro and many other such companies are a product of entrepreneur skills at its best, capital used for pure motive of profit, benefiting, millions directly or indirectly, not because your intention was other people’s benefit but because your motive was profit. When you seek dole money for your good intention of spending on education and health, you have killed enterprise. Thousands of individuals and organizations who are in these fields with a pure motive of profit are doing far better jobs than all the governments put together. There are private schools who seek rupee 1 a day per student and still make their profits. It’s like Wipro selling a shampoo sachet for the same price. Government sponsored social schemes, even in education and health can only construct buildings and pay salaries. They can never offer services.
• Sports on the other hand, besides celebrating the human spirit of excellence, creates enterprise, profits, jobs and infrastructure. There are countries that survive on sports tourism, and if India is a country of poor people with a massive human resource, India perhaps is the neediest of this industry and has the best resource of being a sporting nation.
• 28000 crores of public money is surely down the drain, but if it was a private event this money would look trivial. IPL has a brand value of approx 20000 crores, which does not have a state sponsorship and its core value is profit. If cricket was to survive or any other game, it will be due to the profit motive involved. In the interiors of the villages you will find pitches and boys in their creases in bare soles.
Recalling Gandhi ji’s advice to recall of the poorest person, in taking an affirmative step. Now! You think very hard Mr. Azim Premji, would you rather let that man learn how to fish and leave him a clean pond, or would you rather feed him a fish today?
do give it a second thought, before ending opportunities for millions you have already harnessed to arrive at a state of philanthropy.

Warm Regards,

An Unfair Wage creator Bihari.