Bring in a Parsi – quench a controversy. Bring in a large corporate name – sell third rate Chinese products in that name. Prop up a fake promoter – bypass FDI laws.
Brands get leveraged to be monetised better. In crude words, it is brand prostitution. Selling the body, mind and soul of your brand to make money.
Like we have corporate brands like Tata, we have community brands like “Parsis”. Doesn’t matter how those brands got built – what matter is how they are perceived today. The Parsis made their fortune trading opium and making junkies out of Europeans by selling them Chinese dope through the British. I think the brilliantly made documentary sponsored by Mrs Premchand, “Merchant Princes of Bombay” portrays this beautifully. What it does not however state is that the first communal riots in Bombay were not between the Hindus and the Muslims but between the Parsis and the Gujratis. It was the opium wealth and secrets of the top opium families which got them to agree to marry only between themselves – which ruined the gene pool of the community. And this coupled with infertility has reduced them from a community to a tribe. The situation got so bleak that they had to import vultures to eat the dead.
But it is interesting to see that whenever a corporate gets caught with their pants down, they get a willing man to prostitute his community brand. Keki is someone who is likeable and personable. He and I share the same alma mater – AF Ferguson. I think he is clean and honest. But !!! He was never in HdFC Bank but in HDFC Ltd. So what does he know about the Bank. He is 71 with nothing to lose and no skin in the game.
Ditto with Renu Karnad Sud. Her husband Bharat is a great nuclear deterrent supporter. I have held a contrary view on nuclear. His support is for big bombs. My interest is in peaceful applications like micro power. He was part of the Advisory team that came up with a weapons strategy. My interest has been the Shanti Act. He is a nephew of the great Girish Karnad – with whom I did several film projects. Renu spent most of her life in Delhi running HDFC Ltd home finance. She is possibly singularly responsible for creating a mega brand called Deepak Parekh who got onto every single govt committee that mattered. He in turn helped her rise from a non CA, non MBA in a support role to MD of HDFC Ltd. She has been very vocal on the Chairman controversy. But !!!! She too was never in the Bank.
Now let’s come to the bank. The bank itself was built on a rented name – HDFC. It was created by merging a lot of failed banks – and Rajiv Maliwal at Sabre Capital was at one time selling every possible junk bank to HDFC Bank. What did all the leadership team at HDFC Bank have in common. They used to all work for the Havala Bank. Including the last Dy MD who left mysteriously.
HDFC Bank was a creation of Brand Prostitution. And usurped its parent. How is it Keki and Renu were never involved in the Bank.
The worms have only started coming out.
