Much has been written about the recent austerity drive undertaken by the Congress government and the subsequent effects of this on their members (most notably Shashi Tharoor and the positively ludicrous ‘cattle-class’ episode). The Times of India recently carried an article about the Government extending this austerity drive to the C.E.O.s of private companies as well. Imposition of stringent restrictions on the spending of politicians and other people in (supposed) public service makes complete sense since it is the tax-payers money that is being used. However applying the same standards to the private companies is not only unfair to them but also ridiculous in that the salaries that the employees is entirely the organisations prerogative. Putting a cap on salaries makes absolutely no sense as the amount of salary offered often decides whether a company can get the man it wants or not. The salary cap on the CEOs of private organisations sends the country back fifty years to the days when ‘profit was a dirty word’.
It is indeed depressing that even though the Congress now has the absolute majority, the absence of which critically impeded their actions last term, they are not addressing the issues which were bound to be opposed by someone or the other in their coalition last term but are in fact wasting their time stretching fundamentally good initiatives to the point of rupture by applying them outside their domain of validity.
