L&T chairman SN Subrahmanyan will survive this controversy because this is India, where we have a ‘chalta-hai’ attitude. In the West, he would have been forced to apologise or resign.

Do Indians not like to work hard? There is only one possible answer to that question: don’t be ridiculous. We are among the hardest-working people in the world. Often, it is not even a matter of choice. You only have to look at daily wage earners, struggling farmers, roadside vendors, or labourers to see how long and hard they have to work just to survive.
What about the Indian middle class? Well, consider the experience of Indians abroad. One reason why Indian employees are so unpopular in some parts of the world is that they are willing to work longer hours than their white colleagues, even forsaking holidays if necessary. The same is true of Indian shopkeepers and small business owners.
This holds true for Indian students abroad as well. They are usually among the best in class, partly because they work much harder out of a need to excel.
Why, then, are we embroiled in a controversy about how hard Indians should work? Who could possibly believe we don’t work hard enough? Why do some people think they have the right to tell those who already work their guts out that they need to work even harder?

Murthy spoke from his experience
Let’s start with Narayana Murthy‘s remarks, which ignited this debate. I have known Murthy—as a journalist rather than as a friend—for over two decades. He has always been a natural leader. When he left a secure job in Mumbai to take a leap into the unknown and form Infosys, such was his charisma that many of his colleagues abandoned steady jobs, invested their meagre savings, and started Infosys with him.
I have heard how tough the early days were. Murthy himself told me in an interview that if Manmohan Singh had not come along and reformed the economy, Infosys would have gone bust. As it turned out, the risk-taking and hard work paid off, and Infosys became one of India’s greatest success stories.
So, I tend to listen closely to Murthy. He has been through ups and downs. He has stared failure in the face and taken success in stride. He remains a leader, a man of strong views about how the world should be run. When he talks about hard work, he’s speaking from his own life and years of slogging. I get that.
But here’s my question: lots of young people, some inspired by Infosys, have launched start-ups in the years after Murthy and his colleagues proved it could be done. Are these people not working very hard? Are they taking fewer risks than Murthy and his colleagues did?
I don’t think so. Indians continue to work just as hard, with the same drive. That’s why so many young people throw away stable jobs to make something of their lives and pursue their dreams. I’m sure they agree with Murthy that we all need to work hard. But I am equally sure they don’t need him to remind them. Nothing has really changed since he founded Infosys, except that even more people are working harder to achieve similar results.
While Murthy’s comments provoked a debate, the uproar faded after the much more outrageous comments made by SN Subrahmanyan, the chairman of Larsen & Toubro (L&T).
SN Subrahmanyan is not someone I have ever met, let alone interviewed. But I did interview Henning Holck-Larsen, the founder of L&T, and I am pretty sure he would never have talked down to his employees. He was a true gentleman, polite and proper to a fault.Subrahmanyan acted like a feudal master
Unlike Holck-Larsen, who was a pioneer and visionary, Subrahmanyan is a professional manager, the latest in a series of executives to lead the company. But he is no pauper either. According to media reports, not denied by L&T, he earns roughly Rs 1 crore every week. This, he seems to believe, gives him the right to talk down to his employees.
When asked by a member of his team why L&T needed people to work on Saturdays, Subrahmanyan could have offered reasonable responses. For instance, he could have said that the market was more competitive or that L&T needed to increase productivity. Instead, he chose to treat the question itself as unreasonable. Saturdays? Why just Saturdays? Ideally, he would want employees to work on Sundays too, he declared.
If he had stopped there, it might have been enough. But having dug a hole, he enthusiastically jumped into it. He celebrated the virtues of a 90-hour workweek and, most obnoxiously, asked what his employees would do if they stayed home. All they could do at home, he suggested, was look at their wives—and how long could anyone do that for?
Subrahmanyan seems to relish living at the bottom of that hole. When he had an opportunity to end the controversy by apologising, his company issued a public statement doubling down on his remarks, justifying his stupidity by saying, “At L&T, nation-building is at the core of our mandate… “

So patriotism is the last refuge of a misogynist.
Are you surprised that Indians are so angry about such remarks? Of course, we work extremely hard. Even the middle class works harder than its counterpart in the West, without anything like the same kind of rewards or the same level of governmental benefits or support. The last thing we need is fat cats and millionaires telling us to work harder.
Perhaps Murthy genuinely feels that young people today don’t work as hard as he and his colleagues did when they set up Infosys. If so, he is wrong. And in any case, I don’t think it is wise for him to deride the efforts of people who earn less in a year than he makes in an hour.
Subrahmanyan’s case is far worse. He sounds like a man trapped in the wrong century. There was a time when zamindars and old-style lalas could talk like that to their employees, urging them to keep slaving away for their benefit. But the world has changed. Nobody should talk to their professional colleagues like a feudal master.
The misogyny in his remarks is bad enough. But there is also the implicit assumption that L&T employees should have no lives outside of work. Even spending time with their families is frowned upon.It’s India, after all
The L&T chairman will survive this controversy because this is India, where we have a ‘chalta-hai’ attitude. In any Western country, he would have been forced to apologise profusely or resign.
But Subrahmanyan has managed to achieve something unique: he has turned L&T, one of India‘s most respected companies, into the subject of memes and public ridicule. In doing so, he has insulted his employees twice.
First, by telling them they should have no lives outside of work and mocking them for spending time with their wives. And second, by turning the company they have given their lives to into a figure of fun.
That finally is the lesson. Billionaires should think before lecturing us. And small men who run large companies founded by much bigger personalities should never be allowed to believe their positions give them the right to treat employees like bonded labour.
(Edited by Prashant)

Courtesy The Print