Why the information technology sector irritates some netas

Why the information technology sector irritates some netas
The Economic Times


THE Farmer Leader was taken aback with the welcome reception at the arrival lounge of the airport at India’s Silicon Plateau. There were hundreds of people holding garlands and waiting to receive him. He strode out into their midst, ready to tell them that he, the son-of-the-soil, was too humble to be received like this when he got the shock of his life. The crowd rushed past him to garland a quiet bespectacled man standing in a corner and shouted, “Long live the IT Leader! You have done the country proud!” The Farmer Leader walked furiously to his waiting car and snapped at the secretary carrying his baggage: “What was that all about?” The apologetic aide said, “Sir, the IT Leader has just returned from the World IT Congress where he was presented with the International IT Person of The Year Award, the first time anyone from this country has been chosen for this great honour. It is a proud day for us that the first person to get this award from this country hails from our state.”

“Rubbish!” harrumphed the Farmer Leader. “Have the people of the state already forgotten everything I have done for them as not only their Leader but the Leader of their country? It is I who put this city and this state on the international map long before all this IT-byetie business. There would have been no IT chicken nor IT egg without me, let alone the IT Leader! No, the crowd we saw at the airport foolishly rushing to garland the IT Leader could not have been the ordinary people. They must have been IT employees who had been given the day off to felicitate their employer. Maybe it is time we taught them a lesson. They should learn that there are more important people than those who fool around with computers day-in and day-out in air-conditioned offices while we poor farmers sweat it out under the scorching sun to grow food for the masses!”

For the rest of the drive home from the airport, the secretary kept studiously silent while the Farmer Leader scowled in deep thought. The car slowed down as it drove past a corporate campus. “Whose land is that?” the Farmer Leader demanded to know. “Sir, it is part of the IT leader’s corporate campus,” the secretary stated. The Farmer Leader slapped the long-suffering shoulder of his secretary and said, “Now I know what to do! Take down this letter.” The Farmer Leader cleared his throat and dictated: “Dear CM, It has come to my notice that acres and acres of prime farming land have been grabbed by some quarters in the IT sector. The people of this state, especially the millions of farmers who toil day-in and day-out in the fields and who gave my party a mandate in the last elections, will not forgive us if we do not look into these reports of land being taken over by the IT sector. As a humble son-of-the-soil and as the leader of the party which is part of the coalition government running the state, I demand that the occupation of land by the IT sector be enquired into. I also demand to know what benefits--if any--the sons-of-the-soil of our state have derived by way of employmentgeneration from this occupation of land by the IT sector.”

“Brilliant, Sir! Brilliant!”, the secretary said while crossing the tees and d o t t i n g the eyes. “But what if the occupation of land is all as per the rules?” The Farm Leader smiled and said, “We must not pre-judge the results of the enquiry but wait for it to unfold at its own pace.” The secretary repeated “Brilliant, Sir! Brilliant!” while the Farm Leader closed his eyes and dreamt of the good old days when, as the nation’s leader, he had exhorted the people from the ramparts of the Red Fort to rise above petty regional considerations and work towards the best interests of the country as a whole. He particularly remembered a speech he had delivered to the troops on the border where he had expressed the wish that the rest of the country emulate the jawans who were prepared to sacrifice their lives for the nation. He remembered how everyone had stood up and cheered when he said, “We must all remember that we are all sons of only one soil and that is the soil of India. We must never lose sight of that vision for which thousands of our freedom fighters fought and which continues to inspire thousands of our jawans who guard the country’s border day-in and day-out under the desert sun and in the frozen Himalayas. Jai Hind!”