Neelkanth Ratnakar Dongre died last week. He was 64. No obituaries were written. Except for friends and family, nobody seems to have taken notice. But those who have followed the capital’s corporate scene closely will tell you that his life was an extraordinary journey of ups and downs. 

He started out in the 1960s at DCM – it was called Delhi Cloth Mills at that time and was a great training ground for executives. Quickly, he entered the good books of Lala Charat Ram, the youngest son of Lala Shri Ram. In the 1970s, when one of his factories in Kolkata as besieged by agitating workers, Dongre loaded all the papers in a truck, smashed a wall to make way and drove the truck all the way to Delhi. 

At his home in an up-market South Delhi neighborhood, Dongre kept a room full of medals and trophies he had won when he was young. I never like to lose, he would often say. 

Lala Charat Ram too relied explicitly on him. On overseas trips, Lala Charat Ram would quietly upgrade Dongre’s hotel room. So much so, he gave all powers in the group after it split in the late-1980s to Dongre and not to his two sons, Deepak and Sidhharth. Together, they formed what came to be known as the Charat Ram-Dongre group. The two were together in a number of businesses – hotels, real estate, automobile components, trading, furniture etc. 

In his autobiography, Lala Charat Ram sang fulsome praises of Dongre and had only harsh words to spare for his sons. It was an open secret that Dongre had become the bone of contention between the Lala Charat Ram and his sons. They saw him as a usurper who was trying to take what was rightfully theirs. 

Then things took another turn in the late-1990s. Charat Ram and his sons made up and Dongre overnight became a liability. After a bitter boardroom battle, he was evicted from most of the companies and consigned to the margins. The inevitable had happened – blood runs thicker than anything else. Lala Charat Ram died some time back. Now, Dongre too is gone. But the uncomfortable question remains: Can an executive ever replace family? 

Ever since the Satyam scandal broke out in early January, unsuspecting Indians have once again got to see the seamier side of India Inc. This is a big blow to Indian businessmen. Otherwise, they were role models for the youth. They bought assets all over the world, hobnobbed with global decision makers, rode in fancy cars and created wealth for all. They were unstoppable. 

The halo around them was akin to the one that surrounded our armed forces till late when the rot in defence deals got exposed. Even before that, leakage from the Canteen Stores Department to the market place was a well-oiled operation. But it was never talked about. 

Corruption in the armed forces could be the subject for another piece. What concerns us here is the rampant corruption in the private sector. It has been institutionalized so well that most of us never even get to know of it. Kickbacks on orders, commissions on contracts – it is all an accepted part of the country’s corporate culture. 

In good old days, the owner of a company would more often that not keep the “purchase” function with himself or a family aide. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. All household expense, extended foreign junkets were all billed to the company. Family members were placed at sensitive positions. 

Before it was dismantled in 1991 by the PV Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh combine, the” licence, permit and quota” Raj gave Indian businessmen a unique set of skills – environment management. A businessman was known best for the bureaucrats and ministers in his pocket than his business acumen. Business houses which claimed licences and sat on them to create shortages were exposed a number of times. 

Liberalization came to us 18 years ago, but nothing has changed. Satyam has shown us that. The all-powerful promoter can do what he likes. 

At the executive level too, things are equally bad. For instance, money often changes hands when advertising accounts are given out. If there is any laxity, crores are siphoned off in no time. 

Forensic experts will tell you that there is a deluge of cases involving senior-management fraud these days. Most of these revolve round cooking the company’s books. As their bonuses are linked to the company’s financial performance, they have been found to park expenses in subsidiaries, move stocks to the dealers, book fictitious income etc.