There’s no denying that sexual harassment of women in workplaces and public spaces by males in positions of power and authority is unacceptable. It causes great distress to victims and is a violation of human rights, and in the larger context dissuades thousands of talented women from entering the workforce. But it’s also in the public interest that sexual harassment is carefully defined. According to some sources in The Energy and Resources Institute, Delhi (TERI, estb. 1974), built from ground up into a world-class environment research organisation by Dr. R.K. Pachauri, the chairman of TERI who has been sent on indefinite leave following charges of sexual harassment made by two women employees of the institute, Pachauri — a Nobel laureate, no less — is perhaps more guilty of being gauche, than of sexual harassment. Like too many narrowly educated techies unschooled in social niceties, he not only ill-chose “sati-savitri types” as objects of his amorous advances, but pressed his suit with them in “typically over-zealous Bollywood-style”. In this context, please note that for Bollywood alpha males, it’s SOP (standard operating procedure) to stalk, verbally abuse and even physically manhandle the objects of their desire for which ‘acting’ they are paid crores. Although a brilliant researcher and great institution builder, the fatal flaw of Pachauri, an unfinished techie with a modest middle class background, was that he was overly influenced by the cinematic trash routinely churned out by the brain-dead badshahs of Bollywood, suggest his sympathisers inside TERI. In the circumstances, his expulsion from the organisation is too heavy a price for the nation to pay for his Casanova delusions. Therefore it’s suggested that a public apology and substantial monetary compensation to the two wounded women is adequate punishment. Though tub-thumping moral brigades are likely to be outraged by this proposal, it’s difficult to disagree. Inevitable accident Way back in 1969 when in a fit of socialist frenzy, 28 major private banks promoted by India’s tried and tested business houses, which had survived all discriminatory efforts of our erstwhile imperial masters to make them go under, were nationalised, I feared the ruination of India’s financial system. And so it has come to pass. There is a general consensus that the country’s public sector banks (PSBs) which advance 75 percent of the credit within the Indian economy, are drowning in a sea of bad debts, aka non-performing assets (NPAs). According to banking and finance experts, the NPAs of PSBs average 14-17 percent of advances cf. the normative 1-2 percent of private banks. All these years, PSBs have been kept afloat with massive recapitalisation giveaways from the budget at the expense of investment in education, health and rural development. My scepticism ab initio about the PSBs ever doing well was based on sound logic. Under the Bank Nationalisation Act, 1969, all chairmen and directors of PSBs are appointed by the Central government. In the circumstances, which one of them could refuse to advance loans to politicians’ cronies on merits? And it wasn’t long before…
