Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.
Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://theprint.in/subscribe/
Subbu, you have lost the moral right to ‘rule’!
Ordinarily I wouldn’t dare calling a Chairman/CEO of a mega corporation like L&T, by (probably) his obvious pet name! But Subbu has dissolved the possibility of any more respectful address by his crass comments about ‘staring at wife’, equaling bawdy jokes in liquor bars with equally flippant friends!
But I don’t want to miss the forest for the woods. The more damning & damnable aspect of SN Subrahmanyan’s comments, was not just this crass statement about how long can you stare at your wife & vice versa – but that he actually fancies himself a modern-day Genghis Khan who regrets that he can’t get his ‘subjects’ to work on Sundays & in 90-hour work weeks…
The attempted whitewash by L&T’s PR machinery who pompously & patronizingly declared that his comments were in the larger context of nation building was utter drivel and miserably failed to dilute the acid of his corrosive statements!
The bullet has been fired and Subbu stands unmasked – no attempt at a repair job is going to alter the fact that this misogynistic CEO not just views women (own wife at that) as object to stare (or not stare for long), that is where his definition of family life ends, and worse, that he deems & treats company employees like a herd of cattle to be driven at his whims & fancies!
Mr. Subrahmanyan, you have made yourself the butt of thousands of jokes, memes & trolls not just by the masses but also by noted industrialists, authors and other significant people, an untenable situation for the Chairman of a multi lakh crore company. Worse still, your real face of a deadly wolf in corporate sheep’s clothing has been exposed and there is no running away from that. Nothing will ever convince anyone that you meant or mean otherwise. You have not only tarnished the image of your great company but unpardonably, besmirched the name of India inc.
You have lost the right to ‘rule’ (in your case, I find it difficult to use words like ‘manage’ or ‘lead’) as you behave, think & speak like a warlord! I hope your board finds the guts to show you the door, and even if doesn’t, time for you to hold on to the shreds of your tattered dignity and bow out. What you do afterwards, stare, don’t stare is none of our business! As investors, stakeholders, employees, we will just be happy to be rid of a regressive despot like you. Wish you good luck in whatever your future endeavours may be!
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint
It’s a very bold articulation! And aptly so.
Mr. Subramanyan — you called for it.
In the world of social media, “Leaders” , be mindful pls. Keen to see if the Board is ‘Above Board’ now.