The corporates who Narendra Modi has bagged for himself are men known for their integrity, their value system and a quality that at least in public domain is larger than just profiteering. Modi obviously hopes, these virtues would have some rub-off effect if not on him, then at least on his image.
Ratan Tata, the big daddy of Indian business world was the first to catapult Narendra Modi into the "right circle" from the rightist circle. The benefit was mutual. Tata got much wanted land in Sanand to start his production of Nano and Narendra Modi got not only nation wide but international coverage for being the man who made Nano possible.
Following his success with Ratan Tata, Narendra Modi started promoting Vibrant Guajarat Summit ferociously. A biennial event that is supposed to bring business leaders, investors, corporations, thought leaders, policy and opinion makers on the same stage has been going on since 2003. But genuine public interest in the event started showing only post 2007 when 675 MOUs were signed and garnered 152 billion USD of business. In 2009, 8662 MOUs worth 241 billion USD were signed only to followed by a grand success n 20011 when 7936 MOUs were signed that were to bring 462 billion USD. Although the figures are mighty impressive, the underlying fact is that Modi Inc. has been rather surreptitious about the implementation rate which over the years starting 2003 to 2009 has been on an average not more than 26%.
Nevertheless, perception is a big magnet. Narendra Modi has been carefully constructing his image as a single-minded progressive thought leader. He does not engage in petty politics nor does he voice his opinion on wrong platforms. Thus, it is no surprise that after Tata, the next big catch for Narendra Modi is Narayan Murthy - the gentle, messiah-like mentor to India's biggest export Infosys.
Although, Narayan Murthy's research centre in Gujarat will bring its obvious fruits of benefit to Gujarat's people, would Murthy be able to do another Ratan Tata for Modi?
The two proud trophies that Modi would have liked to display on his shelf - Ratan Tata and Narayan Murthy are not the same men, as we knew them.
Ratan Tata is a man with a compromised image post Nira Radia tapes scandal. Narayan Murthy though not embroiled in a controversy that large, however is a mentor to an Infosys that is slowly but surely losing it's leadership tag to other more agile and open-minded IT companies.
Co-journalists argue inspite of the dented image of Ratan Tata post Radia tapes scandal and not-so-democratic-after all image of Narayan Murthy post Mohandas Pai's resignation; the two men will continue to be perceived as the torchbearers of Corporate Virtuosity.
Possibly! But then maintaining a museum of virtues on the graves of innocent is an old Modi tactic. The facade can continue for some more time.
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