By his own admission, Nestle CEO Peter Bulcke spoke of the trust of consumers being more important for the company. However, his own actions clearly showed that he had betrayed this sacred commodity. His media encounter on Maggi noodles controversy took place after the company’s ‘hearing’ with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The decision to ‘recall’ Maggi took place on the midnight/early hours of Friday. The FSSAI order declaring Maggi “ unsafe and hazardous” for human consumption came even as Bulcke was ending his media encounter. Now if Bulcke did not anticipate this order, he has no business being Nestle CEO, the company should sack him, pronto. If he did, then he had no business in indulging in the ‘recall’ gimmick. He is either incompetent or untrustworthy.
The core issue is the violation of the customer’s trust. There may be some merit in the BJP MLA’s argument that the growth of Maggi in India owes a lot to lazy mothers. But let us not forget that even lazy mothers have rights, and their poor innocent children are not there to be trifled with. Any child can tell you that lead in food is slow poison. What do you call a company that has been feeding slow poison to millions of unsuspecting kids, even if it is not their fault that their mothers are lazy?
India has poor consumer protection laws. Corporates can really make hay with anything and get away with mass murder. We have had the case of Union Carbide that literally slaughtered thousands in their sleep in Bhopal and got away with mass murder. The survivors did get measly compensation after being victimized and re-victimised at every stage. Much like Bulcke, the company CEO Warren Anderson flew into Bhopal for a few hours and was royally escorted to safety. He never returned to India to answer to the courts of law. The issue of ease of doing business in India may be getting lip sympathy now, but the fact is corporates have always had it very easy since the days of the East India company.
Nestle may be guilty of ‘ slow poisoning’ generations of Indian children but there is no dearth of corporate voices in its defense. The worst possible argument being that the air they breathe in India is so polluted that an added heavy dose of lead (eight times the permissible limit) is passe for the Indians, so why crow about the stuff in the noodles? Well, by that logic Nestle could also advertise its packaged food as a ’means of controlling population’ through a tasty process. May be some corporate bosses would prefer to be the brand ambassadors for such a campaign.
It is this attitude that is responsible for the third world kind of status that we have despite being the second fastest growing economy in the world. Our consumers are just treated like subjects of the corporate empires. They have no rights and feelings as empowered citizens in the market. For Nestle too India is a small market contributing less than a percent of its global business.
Thus, for over a year ever since the food inspector Sanjay Singh in Uttar Pradesh detected this gross violation in Maggi noodles, Nestle has committed a series of crimes of omission and commission, and the only way to ensure that multi-national corporations or other entities do not indulge in such acts in future is to ensure that the Swiss multinational is forced to pay an outrageous price for this breach of trust. The damages should be criminal as well as civil. But these have to be disproportionate to the crime. These have to be really exemplary. It has to be something that deeply hurts a 92 billion dollar global giant.
Besides, for once let us not hide behind the hackneyed phrase that the law will take its own course. Without any disrespect for judiciary, we can safely assert that we know the course the law takes in a rich versus poor battle. We know the course taken by the law in Bhopal gas tragedy. The law could not even get Warren Anderson to attend the court for a day, leave alone penalize him for the death of thousands.
Prime minister Narendra Modi is very fond of using a phrase that ”it has never happened before in India.” The Nestle case presents him with the opportunity to really do something for the first time. He can create a mechanism that punishes corporates that betray the trust of their consumers. He is also fond of using the expression — show them the red eyes. Let Nestle see Modi’s red eyes for playing with the future of India’s future–its children’s health.
The matter of penalizing celebrities who endorse such products should also be dealt with the same strictness, though with a modicum of generosity, given that the product they were backing had legal sanctity at that point of time. But should they once again fall into the trap of ‘sanitising’ the misdeeds and indulge in a public relations gimmick then, of course, the treatment has to be different.
Past record does not inspire much confidence in India’s ability to correct such class wrongs. The MNCs hope that the issue loses media steam, and they can work back into business as usual after crossing the easy bureaucratic hurdles. It is well known that governments crumble when faced with corporate pressures. A low level inspector can have his day of glory and have the pleasure of bringing down an MNC to its knees, but governments understand the power of money and do not have the nerve to take decisions that upset the apple cart. We have already seen the apologetic tone of the government in Vodafone tax case, although the mess has not been sorted as yet. The inclination to do so is omnipresent. Sooner, rather than later, Nestle too would earn its olive branch. But that will be at the cost of Indian citizens.
Anil Sharma
