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Harish Bharti fears dirty tricks

Arthur J Pais

Harish Bharti says he is not paranoid. And yet he cannot help but feel queasy from time to time when he thinks of the class action lawsuit he has filed against McDonald's. He certainly does not want to be spied on -- and he is not going to be seduced by a buxom corporate honey trap.

"Can anyone who goes to war really hope to come home without wounds," he wonders, measuring his words.

"But I want to fight this case to the fullest," the Seattle-based attorney says as he discusses his beef with the multinational fast-food chain.

"I am not going to stop till McDonald's stops giving half-hearted apologies for using beef products in their French fries and letting people think it was a vegetarian product -- and makes financial payments."

Bharti, who studied to be a Hindu monk 30 years ago, says he certainly is not playing his own game of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire at McDonald's.

"Believe me, I feel this is another kind of call... that I was destined to do this for the sake of good karma," says the father of two boys. It is also his good karma that his wife Anoop, whom he calls his guardian angel, understands his mission.

"Yes, I do worry about what a big corporation can do [to harm their critics] even when I feel like I am waging a dharma yudh [holy war]," says Bharti, who has sued Boeing in the past for discriminating against Asians.

"...Especially when I think of what McDonald's did in London to Greenpeace activists who distributed leaflets critical of the company."

He is referring to the McDonald's case against activists Helen Steel and Dave Morris that began nearly 11 years ago and has reached the European Court of Human Rights.

The leaflets distributed by the activists contained a slew of charges against McDonald's -- some were sensational: "McDonald's and Burger King are ... using lethal poisons to destroy vast areas of Central American rainforest." Some were of a milder nature -- "a diet high in fat, sugar, animal products."

Though Steel and Morris were found to have libelled McDonald's by a British court, best-selling author Eric Schlosser notes in Fast Food Nation, the same court also found McDonald's had endangered the health of its customers and paid workers unreasonably low wages.

There were more shocking revelations.

As Steel and Morris appealed against the libel verdict, people got to read about the tactics the fast-food chain had employed in trying to gather information about Greenpeace activists.

"I find it horrible, I can't believe anyone can go to this extent to hound ordinary people," Bharti says.

Schlosser notes in his book: "The company had employed at least seven undercover agents [to spy on Greenpeace]... During some London Greenpeace meetings, about half the people in attendance were corporate spies."

"One spy broke into the London Greenpeace office, took photographs, and stole documents. Another had a six-month affair with a member of London Greenpeace while informing on his activities."

Bharti says his stomach churns when he reads about corporate espionage. But there was quite a bit of absurd drama too.

"McDonald's spies inadvertently spied on each other, unaware that the company was using at least two different detective agencies," Schlosser reveals.

"They participated in demonstrations against McDonald's and gave out anti-McDonald's leaflets."

Bharti does not think McDonald's has changed over the years -- and he is not impressed by the apology it issued this week.

"Apology is good for the soul if it comes from the heart," he says. "It is not an unconditional apology," he continues. Why do they go around using words like 'if there was any confusion' in their apology? he asks.

Meanwhile, he says, things are getting "worse" for McDonald's. He has filed lawsuits against the company in Alameda County in California and also in Vancouver in British Columbia, apart from Seattle.

"Ultimately it is going to be one consolidated lawsuit," he says. He chose Vancouver and Los Angeles because of the large number of Indians living in the two cities. "Besides, in California, the consumer protection laws are really strong. And the punitive damages are also usually very high."

Though the lawsuit does not mention any figure, he expects the jury to award punitive damages in millions. "Corporations only learn lifelong lessons when they have to shell out big amounts of money," he remarks.

Since he filed the lawsuit nearly a month ago, Bharti, who runs his own one-man law business, has become a celebrity. Articles about him have appeared in over a dozen countries, including Japan. The New York Times ran a Page One recently about the French fries controversy. Bharti's picture was given prominent display in the article.

He says that while he is pleased with the worldwide attention the lawsuit has received, what makes him feel really good is the appreciation he is receiving from many former French fry eaters.

"I have heard from Jews and Muslims," he says. "They are horrified at the deception."

McDonald's says it never claimed the French fries were a vegetarian item, and their ads only emphasized that the fries were prepared in pure vegetable oil. "They are playing with words," retorts Bharti. "They created an illusion that it was a vegetable product -- and now that they are caught, they are trying to play with words."

EARLIER REPORTS:
'McDonald's apology is not enough'
Bharti's beef with McDonald's

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