How is it that for decades, the people of God’s Own Country do not want to work nor do they want others to work?
Here are four real-life stories of what happened in Kerala to some famous industrialists and the critical lesson, Young Kerala needs to learn.
Dalmia
In the late 1960’s the Cement magnate, the Dalmia Group had a cement factory in Kerala. There was a labor problem. The court upheld the managements’ decision. Dalmia went to meet the industries minister in Trivandrum. It was on the first floor. After he came out of the meeting, when he came down the workers of the factory beat him up Dalmia badly. The minister was watching from the first floor but he did not prevent the workers from doing that. Sri Dalmia saw the minister watching and not doing anything about it but in fact, was grinning.
Then Sri Dalmia told the minister, “You may think that you are smart in doing this to me because you are a powerful man here. But you don’t know how powerful I am as an industrialist in North India. After I return to New Delhi, I will see to it that not a single industry will ever come to Kerala. And that is what happened. There was no new industry in the state for the next 20 years.
Birla
In the late 1980’s the Kerala government approached Birla senior in Calcutta, and begged him to start any industry, in Kerala. So senior Birla reminded them of what they had done to senior Dalmia. The govt. gave strong assurance in writing that it won’t happen again. Birla started a Rayon manufacturing unit, in Mavoor, Calicut. A written agreement was signed with the unions on the wage structure for the next five years. In the third year, the factory started making a profit. So the workers demanded a share of the profits; which the management denied. The workers went to court but lost the case. So they went on a strike. The management locked the factory and all the management quietly left at night. In the morning all the workers discovered that the entire factory was empty. So they all thought that they had won and there was quite a celebration. The workers thought that they would sell all the equipment and the land and make a hefty profit. But another surprise was waiting for them. The equipment and the land had been overpriced by ten times. And Birla had taken out 10 years’ profit in advance. Birla had outsmarted the unions at every move. The factory and the land are still there like the ghost towns of the Wild West.
Aam Malayalee
In the 90’s we were travelling as a group to Siddhabari where Swami Chinmayananda’s ashram is there, to attend a summer camp on Bhagwad Gita. We were waiting to board the train to New Delhi at Central Station, Madras. Two Malayalees, father, and son, were sitting just in the seats in front of us. The son had made a lot of money in an industry in the Gulf, so he wanted to start another manufacturing unit in Kerala so that the locals could benefit. The product was to be shipped from Trivandrum harbor. The father was advising him never, ever, start an industry in Kerala. At the time of shipping the unions will prevent your cargo from being loaded on the ship without giving them a hefty share of the invoice value, which will ruin you. Start the factory in Mangalore, the shipping unions there were very helpful and cooperative.
Gulf Malayalees
Around 2002 all the Malayalees in the Gulf got together and created funds to start an IT industry in Trivandrum, Kerala so that the local boys could get jobs and they requested the govt. to allocate some land to build a complex where all the units of the IT industry could function under one roof. The proposal was very warmly and enthusiastically welcomed by the govt. But in the Legislative Assembly, all the political parties could not come to an agreement over the share of the cake in inflating the cost of the land, everybody wanted the major share for themselves. The Gulf Malayalees waited patiently for three years, and they renewed their offer, but this time to the city of Cochin, in the meantime, Sri Narendra bhai Modi heard of this and he sent his personal representative to Dubai. He got the Malayalees to invest in Gujarat. He had already allocated land in the port of Veraval with all the necessary permits, 28 of them, from all the departments. And everything is functioning well there.
George Chemmanur
Finally, Sri George Chemmanur the senior is a personal friend of mine. Sri George is 15 years older than me. Chemmanur Group of jewelers has about 9 or 10 branches in Kerala, but the head office is strategically located in Bangalore. He told me that the employees in jewelry firms in Tamil Nadu, when the boss is away they would be chatting among themselves, going out for a cup of coffee or a smoke. In Kerala, when the boss is away, they will download the company’s accounts’ balance sheets secretly. Get it analyzed by an external auditor and determine the actual profits. They will wait patiently for the day when there is a wedding function in the boss’s house and strike work. And then demand a share of the profits. So Sri George had minimum staff and the computers were made accessible only to family members.
Note: The author is a member of Team PGurus and prefers to stay anonymous
PGurus is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with all the latest news and views
For all the latest updates, download PGurus App.
- Supreme Court rejects plea to tally all VVPAT slips with EVM votes; says ‘no going back to paper ballot’ - April 26, 2024
- US report citing human rights violations is deeply biased: India - April 25, 2024
- Kotak Mahindra Bank shares tank 13%. Market Cap erodes by Rs.37,721 cr post-RBI action - April 25, 2024
