The events at retailer Subhiksha are getting more intriguing by the day. Why have the ICICI-nominated directors resigned from the Board and who is really in charge of the company now? If the directors think there has been some fraud, why didn’t they do something about it when they were on the Board? And how can it be possible that Subhiksha did not even have the money to pay to the security guards, as a result of which its stores got vandalised? Even the freshest rookie knows that if you don’t have the money to buy stock for all the stores, the best thing to do is to close down some of them and transfer the stock to the operating ones. It does look as if the management is trying to cover something up.
The episode once again brings out the point that independent directors really serve no purpose — except that the Board position improves their career and social standing, and possibly the sitting fees are also lucrative enough. The directors will argue, with some justification, that a crooked management will always run loops around a Board. In which case, what purpose is the independent Board serving? It is time to call off this farce.
Sanjeev Sinha, Noida
