New minister of corporate affairs Salman Khursheed should ensure that the Serious Fraud Investigation Office does a good job on the Satyam case. But he is completely wrong when he says his ministry will pay close attention to the layoffs in Satyam. Satyam has been bought by Tech Mahindra. This was a very brave decision given that the accounts of the company were suspect. This decision was taken on the basis of Tech Mahindra’s understanding of the kind of contracts Satyam had and the value it put on Satyam’s human resources. If it now wants to shed some of them, it must be doing so after a great deal of thought. Why should the government now interfere? If it wants to protect jobs, it should have made this clear from the very beginning.
If it is so concerned about layoffs why doesn’t the government not do something for the millions of textile and other workers who have lost their jobs in the slowdown? Why fuss about a few thousand engineers who, in any case, will get another job? We need a stimulus package for those workers who have nowhere to go and have no option but to commit suicide.
Krishna Gupta, New Delhi
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