Sunday, April 19, 2009

Congress campaign - a retort


Re: FW: Haven't BANKER's racked enough HAVOC already?‏
From:
Puneet S. Wadhwa (puneet.parklane@gmail.com)
Sent:
20 April 2009 11:53AM
To:
Shashi Kapoor (smk.co@hotmail.com)
thanks venu,
a very correct retort to a obviously lucid mind
FW: Haven't BANKER's racked enough HAVOC already?‏
From: Shashi Kapoor (smk.co@hotmail.com)

Sent: 20 April 2009 10:53AM
To: Wadtru synthetics (puneet@options-world.com)

Dear Mr. Puneet Wadhva,

I am Venu working at S.M.Kapoor & Co. The last time you were here we mentioned Meera Sanyal in our conversation. This morning I received an e-mail, obviously from the Congress camp, denigrating Meera Sanyal and her profession. I thought a retort was called for. Forwarding you the same by way of conversation.

Regards
Venugopal


________________________________________
From: smk.co@hotmail.com
To: pranaylambha@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Haven't BANKER's racked enough HAVOC already?
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:38:39 +0530
Dear Pranay Lambha,

Whoever you are, it is clear that you are supporting Congress. While it is well within your purview to say that your preferred candidate is more eligible than Meera Sanyal, you cannot deny her right to participate in the electoral process by being a candidate. Moreover, you have no right to denigrate the entire profession of bankers to spite Meera Sanyal. What qualification does the Congress candidate have except that he is the son of a famous politician? Let all candidates present their case and let the voters decide. Meanwhile, if you are a gentleman, I expect you to apologize for having denigrated bankers. They are also a part of our society and they play an important role. The failure of some bankers cannot be a general comment on all bankers.

Regards
K.Venugopal
Mumbai


________________________________________
From: pranaylambha@yahoo.com
To: smk.co@hotmail.com
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 03:44:22 -0400
Subject: Haven't BANKER's racked enough HAVOC already?

Dear Friends,

It comes as great surprise to see a banker running for public office in Mumbai South for the MP seat at the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to take place on April 30th, 2009. Meera Sanyal, current head of ABN Amro India, is running as an independent candidate on a platform in which she boasts her credentials and experience as banker to deliver improved infrastructure and public services to the city of Mumbai. In addition to this ludicrous claim that a banker´s experience is tantamount to efficiency in public service, she is also making the claim that she is better suited than all the other candidates in the South Mumbai Lok Sabha elections to tackle the impacts of the global financial crisis in the Indian economy.

It is notoriously known that it was the bankers' greed and irresponsibility that led to the insolvency of the global financial system, with total credit losses estimated to be around USD3 to USD4 Trillion. If today she can stand on a podium and pick a microphone and not be booed or thrown a shoe at her it is because the UPA government under the leadership Mr Manmoham Singh has implemented sound economic policies and and previous Congress government's strict banking regulation. India`s banks are healthy and not impacted by the global financial crisis as they are well regulated and the conservative policies of the RBI (of which Dr Singh was the former head) have shielded India from being an integral part of this global financial mess. The economic performance of the Congress Party should be praised because even in this recessionary global scenario, India will experience the second highest growth rate in the world in 2009, and the Indian economy has grown well above historical average over the last 5 years.

The fact that she has done some corporate lending, M&A deals, project finance and micro finance does not credit Mrs Sanyal the knowledge she claims to have about the economic, social and political needs of India. Bankers are great deal makers and are good salespeople especially when blowing their own trumpet, but they have no idea of how public life works. As matter of fact, it is very arrogant on her side to claim that she knows what India and Mumbai need to do to face the global financial crisis when all over the world it is the politicians and governments that are bailing out financial institutions. As a matter of fact, RBS is the parent company to ABN Amro India and RBS posted 24.1 billion pounds in losses for 2008, the biggest ever loss by any company in the UK resulting in a state sponsored bail-out program, RBS is 70% state-owned and has already announced a plan to reduce its presence in 34 out of the 56 countries that it operates. It is not clear if India is one these markets that will suffer cutbacks but from the stories making its rounds I am certain India will not be excluded. What I am also hearing from the grapevine is that Mr. Madan Menon is now heading RBS India and that Meera is on a permanent leave of absence and has therefore as an afterthought decided to embrace public life.

She said that she has 25 years of experience in banking and that she will serve the next 25 years of her to her country and city, the timing for her "call of duty" to be a public servant is very interesting since the parent company of ABN Amro India is insolvent and the overall bleak prospects for the financial services industry will hinder her ability to generate the high level of compensation. Banks that received government aid are not allowed to pay high bonuses to their executives before the government gets repaid (e.g AIG in the US).

In short, I want to leave all of you with a simple message: not everything that shines is gold. Don't be fooled by fancy words, statistics, masterplans and websites. The political process in India needs a lot of changes and improvements but putting a banker in power is not one of them.

Best Regards,

No comments: