HR MANAGERS AND DEMOCRATIC VALUES  

The professional associations of HR managers are supposed to be the platforms for its members to believe and practice democratic values of equal opportunity and humanism. But some of them are promoting crony selection system coupled with inefficiency and dishonesty, under the blessings of so called HR gurus.

There are three major associations of people involved in human resource management practices in India, namely National Institute of Personnel Management(NIPM), Indian Society for Training and Development(ISTD) and the National HRD Network(NHRD). All of them have registered themselves as charitable societies under the Societies Registration Act and claim tax benefits. All of them have branches all over the country. The branches of NIPM and ISTD do not have to register separately but NHRD branches have to register themselves as societies. By virtue of being registered societies they have got the bylaws by which the office bearers and the executive committee members both at the head office and branch level have to be elected by their members. But there are flaws in the way they practice these democratic norms.

ELECTIONS

ISTD has best practices in regularly conducting elections once in a year both at the national level and at the branches. NIPM does so once in two years at the national level but at many branches the elections are replaced by selection of cronies by cronies. At the NHRD, contrary to its own bylaws selection of cronies by cronies is institutionalised both at the national level and at most of the branches. In this crony practice the existing office bearers will play a pivotal role in selecting the next set of office bearers so that mistakes of outgoing team are buried and sealed by the new team.

FLAWS OF CRONY SYSTEM

Crony system has helped handful of people to remain in the helm of affairs for many many years thereby preventing the infusion of new thoughts for change and development. In fact some of these cronies have pooled funds for investing in HR related consulting and publication companies, and are indirectly sharing vital information of the members with these companies, for personal gains. In fact the pioneers of crony selection system at NHRD are none other than Dr. T.V.Rao and late Dr.Udai Pareek who are revered as HR professors even though they are psychology professors.

WHY ARE THEY OPPOSED TO DEMOCRATIC PRACTICES

Democratic principles require that all the members will have equal; right to contest the election, right to exercise their franchise and all their votes will have equal value, thereby creating equal rights and responsibilities for all its members. But unfortunately the founding members come from Indian families who have lost their power and control over the society due to the introduction of democracy in India after independence in 1947. These families wanted freedom from British rule without universal franchise. Prior to 1947, the eligible Indian voters in general election are (1) those who are owning at least 100 acres of land or those who are graduates. Just 0.3% of the Indian population were meeting this criteria and thus this 0.3% Indians were voting on behalf of 99.7% Indians to elect the government for their convenience.  But the Constitution of India not only provided the right of vote to all its citizens but also gave equal value for their votes irrespective of their socio economic background; apart from the right to contest the elections even to the poor and to the illiterates. As a result the 0.3% Indians lost their control over the government and the society by giving birth to the 3M politics of new age politicians like Maya, Mulayam and Modi.

WHO ARE THEY

Today the people who are opposing democratic system of election and universal franchise in HR associations are neither traditional anti-socials nor the political hooligans. Rather they are the current or past HR heads of India’s most successful private sector organizations like Tatas, Birlas, Reliance,  etc. They represent respectable middle class Indian families   like the Vysas from Andhra to Rajastan, the Brahmins from Tamilnandu  to Punjab, and the Muselmans from Lucknow to Kolkata. They are academically meritorious and have studied in reputed colleges like TISS and XLRI. Since they are afraid of losing elections, they have replaced the statutory election system with crony selection system for the mutual benefit of select few. All the professional associations of doctors, lawyers, or chartered accountants are regularly conducting elections but HR associations like NHRD is an antithesis to democracy. The founders of NHRD –TV Rao, Anil Khandelwal, KK Verma, Kakoli Shah and father Abraham have lot of sympathies for crony selection system by virtue of belonging to 0.3% Indians category.

Seven years ago some like minded members highlighted the irregularities committed by these selected cronies in the purchase of office premises and were forced to shut their mouth by these so called meritorious HR heads who are afraid of elections. Today it is a blown out issue across many parts of India beginning with Delhi Chapter of NHRD. The cronies who have tasted the benefits without having to contest the election are not willing to conduct election as per the approved bylaws. As a result, in the second week of June 2016 all the past presidents of NHRD met in Mumbai, deliberated the developments in detail and finally decided to continue with the crony selection system since it has benefited their elevation as presidents in the past.

BEST PRACTICES IN DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM

After continuous persistence by like minded members the Bangalore chapter of NHRD was registered as a charitable society in the year 2008 under the able leadership of Dr Gopal Mahapatra and Prof. Anuradha Mahesh. But unfortunately Gopal Mahapatra said “since there is no practice of holding election at the chapter level or national level I will not do so even though the registered bylaw requires it”. Finally it was highlighted to him by the members that he will be prosecuted for violation of bylaw, he relented and held the election. Since then election notifications are issued once in two years and elections are held wherever there are more number of contestants than the number of positions. It means all the members of the chapter now are eligible to contest the election, cast their votes and all their vote will have equal value.  It is immaterial since then whether the elected presidents (Mahalingam, Harish Devarajan, Sudeesh Venkatesh and Bala) are from upper caste or lower caste; from one caste or different caste but they command immense respect from all the members by virtue of getting elected through democratic means.

THE FALLACY OF TV RAO AND UDAI PAREEK

Thirty years ago, Prof. T.V.Rao and late Prof. Udai Pareek had formulated the theory that democratic election will kill professionalism and promote the politics of inefficiency. Hence they invented the crony selection system and seeded it across all the chapters of NHRD.  But Bangalore chapter of NHRD for the past eight years has become highly professional both in its philosophy and its practice. Those who have attended the national conference conducted at palace grounds Bangalore under the able leadership of Harish Devarajan and C Mahalingam and those who regularly attend the monthly lectures of NHRD Bangalore chapter can only understand the perpetual professional acclaim achieved by Bangalore chapter. I wish the intellectually honest people embrace democratic norms from now onwards based on Bangalore experiment.

Similar to what T V Rao and Udai Pareek did in NHRD;  Mr.D.R.Nagaraj the founding member of NIPM Karnataka chapter advocated crony election system and prescribed that senior most vice chairman should be unanimously elected to Chairman position of the chapter.  In this system Nagaraj had the right to place the persons of his choice as chairman for many many years. Then a NIPM trust was formed in 1984 to manage the money and properties of NIPM Karnataka chapter and only people belonging to Brahmin and Lingayath community were nominated as trustees. But inefficiencies crept in; the trust deed which was not registered has been assumed to have been registered; income tax exemption was not obtained; trustees were not carrying out trust objectives; the title deeds of the property were lost and trustees were not accountable to anyone. When all these anomalies were detected after thirty years in 2014, by Vice Chairman of the chapter, the powerful group of trustees headed by Nagaraj decided that the practice of elevating the Vice Chairman to Chairman post will not apply and there shall be elections. Yes- in the ensuing election the Vice Chairman was defeated by six votes, but democracy was restored. And, the dominance of NIPM trustees over NIPM office bearers was regulated. Free and fair election was again held in 2016 and a democratically elected team of office bearers have taken charge of the NIPM Bangalore chapter.

Hence it is time to thank the respected Dr.T.V.Rao, late Dr.Udai Pareek and Mr.D. R. Nagaraj who founded the theory of crony selection in lieu of democratic election for creating a compelling opportunity to experiment with successful democratic system. But crony selection practices have spread their strong roots across the country capable of disrupting the democratic process. Only the alert members can save the democratic practices.