Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 12: The Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Chairman S.N. Subrahmanyan continued to be at the receiving end for advocating 90-hour a week work culture, more particularly for his comments on “staring at your wife,” with not only the trade unions but even many top industrialists and leading women personalities condemning his remarks.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra, the Serum Institute of India (SII) chairman Adar Poonawalla, RPG Group chairman Harsh Goenka, the Bajaj Auto Managingn Director Rajiv Bajaj, and several other top industrialists joined the chorus of condemning Mr Subrahmanyan whose suggestion to his employees to work even on Sundays with the remark “how long you can keep staring at your wife” sitting at home on Sundays drew flaks from the leading women personalities who termed the remark “misogynistic.”
Focus on the quality of work and not on the quantity, as one can change the world in 10 hours, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra said joining the debate on a 90-hour work week. Speaking at the National Youth Festival in the national capital, Mr Mahindra asserted that he is on social media not because he is lonely and quipped, “My wife is wonderful. I love staring at her.”
Responding to a query on the 90-hour work week, Mr Mahindra, while reiterating his respect for Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy and others, said, “Let me not get this wrong, of course, but I have to say something. I think this debate is in the wrong direction because this debate is about the quantity of work.”
“My point is we have to focus on the quality of work, not on the quantity of work. So, it’s not about 40 hours, it’s not about 70 hours, it’s not about 90 hours. What output are you doing? Even if it’s 10 hours, you can change the world in 10 hours,” he added.
Mr Mahindra further said he “always believed that you have to have leaders and people in your company who make wise decisions, wise choices. So, the question is, which kind of mind makes the right choices and right decisions?”
He also stressed the need to have a mind that is “exposed to holistic thinking, that is open to inputs from around the world” and also the need for people from different backgrounds like engineers and MBAs to study arts and culture to be able to make better decisions. “…because I think you make better decisions when you have a whole brain when you are informed about arts, culture, that’s when you make a good decision,” Mr Mahindra said.
Highlighting the need to spend time with family and friends, he said, “If you’re not spending time at home, if you’re not spending time with friends, if you’re not reading, if you don’t have time to reflect, how will you bring the right inputs into making a decision?”
Mr Poonawalla agreed with Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra over the importance of “work life balance” and said “Even my wife loves staring at me on Sundays.” Mr Poonawalla said he was in agreement with Mr Anand Mahindra (an active social media user), who had said, “I’m on social media not because I’m lonely. My wife is wonderful, I love staring at her. I’m here because people don’t understand it is an amazing business tool.”
Mr Harsh Goenka said work-life balance was not optional, but it was essential. “90 hours a week? Why not rename Sunday to ‘Sun-duty’ and make ‘day off’ a mythical concept! Working hard and smart is what I believe in, but turning life into a perpetual office shift? That’s a recipe for burnout, not success. Work-life balance isn’t optional, it’s essential,” Goenka wrote on X.
Mr Rajiv Bajaj said, “Let 90 hours start from the top. Number of hours of work doesn’t matter, quality of work does. We need a kinder, gentler world more than ever before.”
Top women personalities of the country called out Mr Subrahmanyan over his “stare at wife” remark, terming it “misogynistic.” Several users took to social media to compare Subrahmanyan with Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, who has time and again called for a 70-hour workweek.
Bollywood star Deepika Padukone, badminton player and Arjuna Awardee Jwala Gutta, and many others criticised Mr Subrahmanyan. Ms Padukone in a post on X said, “Shocking to see people in such senior positions make such statements. #MentalHealthMatters.”
Badminton star Gutta Jwala took to X and termed Subrahmanyan’s statements as “disappointing and scary”. “I mean…first of all why shouldn’t he stare at his wife…and why only on a Sunday!!! It’s sad and sometimes unbelievable that such educated and people at highest positions of big organisations are not taking mental health and mental rest seriously…and making such misogynistic statements and exposing themselves so openly!! It’s disappointing and scary!!!!” she tweeted.
Founder of Shaadi.com Anupam Mittal reacted to Subrahmanyan’s “stare at wife” remark. “But sir, if husband and wife don’t look at each other, how will we remain the most populous country in the world,” he said.
Sharing Denmark’s workweek, TMC MP Mahua Moitra urged SN Subrahmanyan to ‘get a life.’ “Danish engineers Larsen & Toubro founded L&T in 1938. Today Denmark ranks 3rd globally in work life balance, 9th in GDP/capita & averages 34 hrs worked/wk. Get a life Mr Chairman,” she posted on X.
The trade unions expectedly slammed the L&T Chairman. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said Mr Subrahmanyan’s statement was similar to the “satanic statement” earlier made by the Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, urging an increase in working hours to 70 hours per week through statutory measures. “It seems that there is a rogue competition among the corporate messiahs to rinse the blood and sweat of Indian workers and they are in active connivance and collaboration with the corporate-communal regime in governance by Modi-led NDA [National Democratic Alliance],” CITU general secretary Tapan Sen had said in a statement.
Mr Sen said Indian workers, even permanent employees in the formal sector, were deployed for much longer hours of work compared with more productive countries, including China, Europe and even the U.S. “The stretching of working hours is very disastrously impacting upon the health and social life of Indian workers,” Mr Sen said.
Former general secretary of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and head of the labour studies think tank Dattopant Thengade Foundation Virjesh Upadhyay said the statement was highly condemnable and raised serious concerns on workers’ welfare and work-life balance. “Advocating such a policy contradicts the principles of quality of life and human dignity that are fundamental to a progressive society. Furthermore, it is concerning that an individual drawing a salary 500 times more than a company’s average employee would propose measures that disproportionately burden the workforce. Such disparity in income and privilege should compel greater responsibility toward ensuring equitable and humane working conditions, not the opposite,” Mr Upadhyay said.
Condemning the statement, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) general secretary Amarjeet Kaur said India needed all the work hours it could generate. “But then what about the raging unemployment? There is youthful energy going waste! Unemployment is reaching highest [levels] as per latest surveys — Subrahmanyans and Murthys do not have anything to say on that score. And whatever wealth is created by the present workforce, at 48 hours a week, there are leeches like Adanis, Ambanis and Choksis and Nirav Modis, and a host of corporates syphoning off the wealth created. There is an indecent, increasing gap between the rich and the poor in India. It has reached to the level of what was there 80 years ago,” Ms Kaur said.
The All India Working Women’s Forum of the AITUC termed Mr Subrahmanyan’s statement patriarchal, scandalous, and condemnable. “This is objectification of women. Mr Subrahmanyan dehumanises women by reducing them to be mere spectacles. His statement disrespects women’s autonomy and agency. Mr Subrahmanyan should know that wives are not to be adorned and be ‘stared at.’ Mr Subrahmanyan should know that a woman is an independent entity and her identity is not defined by her relationships,” the Forum’s convenor Vahida Nizam said.
