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Corporates espouse the cause of Kargil martyrs' families

Veeresh Malik in New Delhi

After the World Cup, the Kargil issue seems to have captured the collective imagination of Corporate India. Several companies have displayed a willingness to espouse the cause of Indian armed forces: donations of cars and vehicles, setting up benefit funds, making cash donations and so on.

A careful study of the companies that have openly associated themselves in some form or the other with the Kargil issue yields interesting details.

The most striking aspect is that a few multinational companies, like Korea's auto giant Daewoo and Swiss food products major Nestle, have a presence on both sides of the Line of Control.

Nestle, for example, can hardly come out in the open in support of India. For it is the largest supplier of condensed milk to the Pakistani armed forces as well.

Critics are already making noises that a few companies are treading a dangerous terrain in trying to cash in on newsy but sensitive issues like the Indo-Pak relations.

Recently, Daewoo issued full-page advertisements in India's national newspapers announcing donation of five Cielo cars and Rs 2 million as contribution to various funds for the benefit of the Indian armed forces. It is learnt the company is trying to woo the defence establishment into purchasing the Musso in large numbers. The Musso is a heavy-duty bullet-resistant vehicle made by Ssang Yong, a Daewoo group company.

Incidentally, Daewoo has made a name for itself in Pakistan for something else. According to Pakistani media reports, the new motorway linking Islamabad and Lahore has been shut down for civilian traffic so that it can be used for trials to operate aircraft. The motorway has been designed in such a way that vast stretches of it can be used as runways for all types of aircraft, including the large C-130 Hercules carriers. And guess who built the motorway? Daewoo! It built and presented the highway to Pakistan in November 1997.

Nearly 98 per cent of the cost of this 333-km long expressway, estimated to cost over $ 900 million, has been absorbed by Daewoo as a soft loan to the Pakistan government, repayable over 16-and-a-half years from toll collected in Pakistani rupees.

The commercial viability of the project has been questioned by some Pakistanis. In fact, there is a joke that the project has been executed to connect the office (Islamabad) and the home (Lahore) of Pakistan's prime minister, Nawaz Sharief!

The unstated reason, however, is that the new expressway provides a very useful defence corridor linking the inner border route in the area, besides offering stand-by aerodromes. A report in the Pakistani media states: "According to official sources, when the 333 km six-lane Lahore-Islamabad motorway was designed, the PAF had asked the National Highway Authority to design at least ten straight and flat 10 km stretches with no overhead bridges which may be used by jet aircraft in wartime. This was conceded and the design of the Pakistani M2 (motorway's name) has at least ten stretches of 10 km each which can act as emergency runways during wartime. "

Daewoo officials in India were unwilling to comment. A couple of top Daewoo officials, however, said, "off-the-record", that they are aware of their company's role and that this is "normal business".

Moving to corporate donations, Indian blue chips like software major Infosys Technologies were the ones to start the trend. The company's employees -- most of them part-owners of Infosys -- decided to pool in Rs 5 million for the sake of Indian armed forces. Employees of Hutchison Max Telecom will donate a day's salary which could total Rs 600,000. Likewise, the Indian Merchants' Chambers is planning to donate Rs 1.8 million.

Baron International, which markets Aiwa audio systems in India, has decided to set aside Rs 100 from every sale since June 6 and hopes to donate Rs 5 million soon to the bereaved families. Non-resident Indian and steel tycoon Lakshmi Nivas Mittal has already donated Rs 1.1 million to the Shaheed Parivar Rakshanidhi, a fund for the benefit of the families of Kargil conflict heroes.

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