Comment

Surely this is irony come full circle. Prince Charles, the putative heir to the British throne, has appealed to massive Indian companies like the Tatas, the Ambanis and Lakshmi Mittal to support his trust.

What does he want the money for? To help projects in Africa perhaps, or the indigenous needy of Europe or victims of China’s earthquake or Myanmar’s cyclone? None of the above would be the right answer. The prince has asked the two biggies of India and our wealthiest Indian abroad to help him protect the environment, preserve heritage and support unemployed youth in the Indian subcontinent.

You may find it shameful but in fact it’s quite funny. And make no mistake, as the prince invites them for lunches and seminars in London, they are bound to make contributions. It would be rude not to, see? If the Prince of Wales asked me to lunch and then to pull out my wallet, even I’d be forced to part with the moolah (don’t worry for me, it’s not going to happen).

You need a minute to work it out? The descendant of an erstwhile colonial ruler of this country — whose government raped and pillaged this country — many years after his predecessors have left our shores — or were asked to leave — takes it upon himself to invite rich

Indians to save parts of their own country. And why has he asked them to save these aspects of the subcontinent? Clearly because not only is some savingrequired but also he must have found out that most rich Indians contribute, hmmm, oh so little.

The only exceptions are the Tatas, which has always been a socially aware company, long before words like corporate social responsibility were invented. Or maybe they invented the words.

Either way, they’ve always done it.As for the rest — well, Bill Gates gives a lot to India for AIDs work and other health concerns. And I’m sure that other Indian companies do give. What I’m not sure of is whether they give as much as Gates or whether they even know that he gives it or even that money needs to be given.

Which is why we have to look kindly upon the prince’s suggestion and not see it as arrogance and stuff like that and take offence and become freedom fighterish. The prince knows that these big rich people travel all the time buying up international companies, sporting teams, getting married, and so on.

They may not have had the time to notice that a) the environment in the Indian subcontinent needs to be protected, b) the heritage in the subcontinent needs to be preserved, and c) there is unemployment in the Indian subcontinent. So he has pointed it out to them.

The prince of course is concerned with issues that concern him, like environment, heritage and youth unemployment. Now that we live in this globalised world, we can invite other world figures who run charities in other aspects of upliftment of the downtrodden to appeal to Indian businesses to contribute to the following issues in India: a) below poverty line people, numbered somewhere between 270 million to 500 million in India alone; b) health for all the above; c) education for all of the above; d) hundreds of thousands of farmers killing themselves every year; e) help with setting up of small scale industries and entrepreneurial projects for the above and others; f) millions of girl children being murdered as foetuses and infants…

There are others, which you and I already know about so I shan’t go on and on about them.

Of course, no one is suggesting that these wealthy business people take on the entire responsibility by themselves. That is the job of the government. No one is even suggesting that someone do a Warren Buffett and give away millions of dollars to charity and not his own children.

Buffett may have heard that Biblical story about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven. Is that why our homegrown billionaires keep going to temples?
Email: b_ranjona@dnaindia.net