BMIC, stupid people and wise guys

In response to my posting the write-ups captioned 'my good friend Ratan' and 'unpardonable chaos creation' (see below) in a yahoogroup, Mr L responded with his usual rhetoric, the substance of which can be guaged from my subsequent response as below:

May be the BMIC project deviated from the original alignments. But, as of now, the roads exist on the ground. As such, why not allow them to be used for the benefit of everyone concerned, even if NICE – the company, benefits the most, instead of pursuing other more disastrous projects?

Also, if wise guys (as different from stupid people) had concentrated their efforts, right from the beginning itself, on ensuring compliance by NICE on matters like alignments, as well as the other terms and conditions, instead of opposing the entire project itself, tooth and nail, perhaps the environmental damages could have been minimised. And that, perhaps, is the lesson here, if one chooses to wisen up a bit.

Just this past Sunday, at the initiative of Mr Zafar Futehally, who in his 80’s finds enough energy to pursue environmental causes that will put a teenager to shame, some 100 residents from the immediate neighborhood, as well as beyond, assembled at the Agara lake (adjoining HSR layout) at around 8AM, and went about clearing the area around the lake off plastics and other waste material. The lake had recently been restored, and the area fenced off, by the Lake Development Authority (LDA). Mr Futehally has observed that a number of bird species, which had kept away from the lake for long, have started making their re-appearance, of recent. Mr B K Singh, the LDA MD, alongwith a few officials including from the PWD, Mr Yellappa Reddy, etc, were also present. Mr Singh went on to inform that the LDA has contracted out the maintenance of the lake to a Hyderabad party, following an open tender process. When I intervened to state that we do not wish to have an amusement park here like the one in Nagavara, he readily agreed to arrange a three-way meeting between the resident representatives, the LDA, and the contractors to review the terms and conditions, as also to have some 5 of us on the monitoring panel. Well, it would have been better if we had been involved in the pre-tendering to stage itself, not just for Agara lake but for the entire lot of them in and around Bangalore, which is what I had been advocating to our ‘wise’ lake protectors all these years, alas, in vain. Now, we will have to see to what extent the damage whatever can be contained in Agara.

Coming back to the BMIC, not just the 35,000 IT professionals, Mohandas Pai, Nandan Nilekani, and Narayan Murthy, but even the likes of Subroto Bagchi (of Mindtree) have been openly supporting the project. If the petition link is made available to me, may be I would like to sign up too. The IT companies have been accused of crowding around Bangalore. And, when they support a project that will help de-clutter Bangalore, that is also found fault with!

The IT industry is easily the most benign of the entire lot from the environmental angle. Its growth has helped generate huge employment opportunities for the educated youth in the country, whose prosperity has in turn fuelled the growth of the other industries leading to creation of employment opportunities, both for the educated as well those less fortunate, in the other sectors also. If not for the IT sector growth, like I have said before, perhaps half the members of HU would have been part of some naxal groups. India has phenomenal strengths in the IT field, there is a vast potential for growth, and the entire country could benefit immensely from it. For growth, however, they need land. Again, like I have stated before, the laws of the land, as they stand today, do not generally allow for purchase of land for industry. If it had been otherwise, the Infosys’s would have purchased land in the open market at prices and terms equitable to all concerned. They have indeed been looking at building whole townships themselves, including for housing, recreation, etc for their staff. Perhaps even some of the land-owners who entered into some such cushy deals with them could have taken to golf, if they so chose and made it a part of the deal. But, the government comes up with all kinds of unnecessary controls and you have a situation, that benefits neither the industry nor the land-owner.

The wise guys perhaps need to pursue correction of this situation. Instead, if they choose to remain rabidly anti-industry, it is natural that anything and everything that the industry does, appears wrong. There’s no easy remedy for that.

It’s nobody’s case that the industry is full of knights in shining armour. But, when you heap criticisms on them for all the wrong reasons, the criticisms for the proper reasons also tend to get blunted.