The urban middle class and their corporate demi-gods
It pains me to see Bangalore's middle class worship Narayan Murthy and his ilk. By the middle class, of course, I mean the primarily English-speaking section of the population, the native Kannadigas have thankfully retained their pragmatism towards this media-managed 'development' fiasco.
As someone who sees through their facade, I take it on myself to deconstruct the myths they have spread about themselves.
1) IT companies have brought jobs to the city: If you analyse a cross-section of employees of IT companies, you will find that most of these jobs are taken by candidates hired from other states. There are a number of factors that prove this point, such as the scarcity of individuals speaking kannada in IT companies, the number of PGs sprouting all over the city, and so on. I'm not a pro-kannada activist, but I do wish to point out that hardly any of these IT jobs have benefitted people from this state. You might argue that a trickle down effect has benefitted other sectors, but in the last ten years, there has been an alarming decline in the number of small and medium scale industries in the city, as have the PSUs.
2) They've put us on the global map: And what has it earned us? A reputation throughout the world for a penchant for stealing jobs from good, hard-working middle class citizens of other countries. Bad roads and overburdened infrastructure. Traffic congestion, highly polluted air, e-waste and rising mounds of garbage, a future where almost half of Bangalore will be waterless, rising cost of living, rising property rates, elimination of local agriculture. The list goes on and on.
3) They've brought ultra-modern facilities to Bangalore: What? The forum? Hah don't make me laugh. It is telling that the Devanahalli airport seems not to have progressed at all despite the big daddy of IT, NM being on the board of BHIAL.
4) They contribute to our GDP significantly: It is a primary problem of economists that numbers cloud their brains so that they cannot even see reality. Despite our GDP growing by the year, we have more people dying of malnutrition, more disease, more poverty, and more of every other problem you can think of. Once again, you will claim that we pay taxes to the government to handle all of those problems. The government is not without fault. But one must really ask how much these companies contribute when they threaten to move to another city or country unless the government gives them unheard of tax breaks. Today's primarily private-sector economies have one thing in common all over the world. The rich get more breaks while the poor take the brunt of everything. And here in the city, while people drown in waves of sewage and rainwater, every IT employee cribs because his hyper smooth ride from the airport is marred by a couple of potholes.
The government has made mistakes, yes. But the biggest one they made was rolling out the red carpet and letting IT walk all over them.
As someone who sees through their facade, I take it on myself to deconstruct the myths they have spread about themselves.
1) IT companies have brought jobs to the city: If you analyse a cross-section of employees of IT companies, you will find that most of these jobs are taken by candidates hired from other states. There are a number of factors that prove this point, such as the scarcity of individuals speaking kannada in IT companies, the number of PGs sprouting all over the city, and so on. I'm not a pro-kannada activist, but I do wish to point out that hardly any of these IT jobs have benefitted people from this state. You might argue that a trickle down effect has benefitted other sectors, but in the last ten years, there has been an alarming decline in the number of small and medium scale industries in the city, as have the PSUs.
2) They've put us on the global map: And what has it earned us? A reputation throughout the world for a penchant for stealing jobs from good, hard-working middle class citizens of other countries. Bad roads and overburdened infrastructure. Traffic congestion, highly polluted air, e-waste and rising mounds of garbage, a future where almost half of Bangalore will be waterless, rising cost of living, rising property rates, elimination of local agriculture. The list goes on and on.
3) They've brought ultra-modern facilities to Bangalore: What? The forum? Hah don't make me laugh. It is telling that the Devanahalli airport seems not to have progressed at all despite the big daddy of IT, NM being on the board of BHIAL.
4) They contribute to our GDP significantly: It is a primary problem of economists that numbers cloud their brains so that they cannot even see reality. Despite our GDP growing by the year, we have more people dying of malnutrition, more disease, more poverty, and more of every other problem you can think of. Once again, you will claim that we pay taxes to the government to handle all of those problems. The government is not without fault. But one must really ask how much these companies contribute when they threaten to move to another city or country unless the government gives them unheard of tax breaks. Today's primarily private-sector economies have one thing in common all over the world. The rich get more breaks while the poor take the brunt of everything. And here in the city, while people drown in waves of sewage and rainwater, every IT employee cribs because his hyper smooth ride from the airport is marred by a couple of potholes.
The government has made mistakes, yes. But the biggest one they made was rolling out the red carpet and letting IT walk all over them.
posted by RTP | 8:49 PM
6 Comments:
Alright, I may be overstepping the line a bit, but you must understand that the 10,000 jobs they created paint a different picture in the context of close to 15-20000 small farmers who lost their land to IT expansion.
There are cases of farmers making a profit yes. But if you look at the areas of new development, especially, case in point, devanahalli, you will realise the truth of the situation. In devanahalli, as reported to me by a kannada reporter of the vijay times who is a credible source on agriculture and kannadigas, there are now more real estate brokers than farmers in that area, because most of the farmers have been forced to sell their lands, and can find no other occupation.
my god. Mr. junior Mehar is a political activist, writer, guitar player, ramshackle lover, and enjoyer of Yes's Owner of a Lonely Heart, that cheesiest of cheesy songs. Btw, when you back to class? When you gonna get yourself a guitar?
bruce this is not a personal forum for personal niceties, for personal gain, in a personal manner, pursuing reluctant students, personally, personally.
Now wait a minute here. I don't really see how far IT companies have to blame for this lack of development. I mean, if IT companies were all that bad, the Karnataka would be rejoicing at their threats right? Somehow, that isnt happening. There is no question that Bangaloreans are often scorned as global job-theifs, but the real reason is this: cheap indian labour, and high demand. That is not a sustainable phenomenon, but to deny the state or the region the revenues (hoewver insignificant and hyped they may be) would be an injustice to all the poor people that you champion (who's fate is probably worse than what u stated). GDP isnt everything, but it's part of the big picture. IT companies and their contributions have to be seen in that picture as well. As far as tacklig those problems of poverty, the onus is on us all, citizens, corporates and governments to help them. The stated goal of a busines is maximizing profits. Sadly, helping the poor is a secondary, if not tertiary concern. Imagine waht more could be done, if the GOVT.(!) took care of the roads, (which would help all people, IT or otherwise) in reflection of the GDP growth and vast revenues it gets from IT companies. There's a problem of blame, but to lay it squarely on IT Co.s is pretty irresponsible.
I seem to have stirred a hornet's nest here. I'm not saying that IT companies are the root of all evil. All I'm trying to establish is that they aren't Gods on earth sent here to save our souls from eternal damnation. They're threats have to be looked at in perspective of all the other problems the country is facing. No more and no less.
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