Fear factor: Corporates must resist intimidation

Corporate leaders should consider promoting an expansion of democratic spaces and proliferation of alternative political visions.

An alarming report by the news agency Reuters quotes corporate India to say “everyone is scared” of the Narendra Modi government and does not want to run afoul of it. It reported several industry executives claiming that “a public diatribe against two Indian business giants by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s officials and his ideological allies has unnerved the business community.”

The reference was to an article by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliated “Panchjanya” magazine alleging that India’s iconic IT Company, Infosys, was trying to “destabilise the Indian economy” because of glitches in the Income Tax Portal which it manages.