By Ruma Dubey

Good work will never go unrecognized. The ‘credit’ account due to the philanthropic work  by McKinsey ex-Chief, Rajat Gupta clearly outweighed the ‘debit’ of insider trading and thus his balance sheet, at the end of it, come off looking much better.

Yesterday, Rajat Gupta, convicted of insider trading was sentenced to two years imprisonment and a $5 million fine, and could face one year of supervised release after finishing his prison term.  His crime – he was part of the Berkshire meetings for big deals and gave heads-up news to Galleon group chairman, Raja Rajaratnam who earlier was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment.  

He could have got a much higher prison term but thanks to all the good work he did, that came to his rescue today. Despite being in the dock for insider trading, Kofi Annan, former UN chief and Bill Gates wrote to a US Judge in support of Rajat Gupta. They did not condone his crime but felt that because he had done so much good for humanity, he deserved a lenient sentence. Bill Gates had said in the letter, “Many millions of people are leading better lives, or are alive at all, thanks to the efforts he so ably supported.”  Kofi Annan said, “I urge you to recognise Rajat for the good he has done in the world, to give him the credit that he deserves for helping others and to take into account his efforts to improve the lives of millions of people.”

So the goodwill which he had created over a period of time helped him today in bad times. As such, he was the poster boy of India; an orphaned immigrant, through sheer hard work and intelligence he had made it to this top notch position. And throughout, he has had a spotless track record and his charity work, monetary as well as volunteer work in India and Rwanda, working closely with the poor and impoverished was legendary.  He is as big a philanthropist as Bill Gates and Buffett.  That is what came to his rescue today. Probably the blessings of many whom he helped him get a leaner sentence.

Three points come to mind here. Firstly, in India, no one high and mighty, someone like Rajat Gupta would ever get convicted. When politicians indulging in bigger crimes, murder and robbing the poor of their land and food, do not get even called to the police station; then how can insider trading be considered any crime at all?  To actually hold people accountable for their crime and punish, is something we in India desperately need.  We most certainly need a few lessons in making our legal system more responsible.

Secondly, yes, Rajat Gupta committed a crime but more than the two years sentence, the taint which he will carry, will be a bigger burden. The reputation which he had so painstakingly built lies in tatters today and that shame is something which Gupta will have to live with for the rest of his life. How many of our industrialists and politicians have such a conscience? Reputation? What is that?  Saying that the “public has a short memory” and bouncing back after every crime, is nothing new here. The breach of trust and faith is unbridgeable.  Gupta plans to dedicate the rest if his life to philanthropy. Yes, he has no other option but at least he knows the truth and is trying to redeem his shame through good work.

Thirdly, the Judge himself has stated that, “sentencing on insider trading is not based on the theory that someone made a loss or gain due to the actions of an insider. While insider trading may work a huge unfairness on innocent investors, Congress has never treated it as a fraud on investors, the Securities Exchange Commission has explicitly opposed any such legislation, and the Supreme Court has rejected any attempt to extend coverage of the securities fraud laws on such a theory.” So when the legal system itself does not recognize this as a crime, what exactly was Gupta punished for? Gupta was convicted for “his egregious breach of trust”. Yes, for many Indians, this may make no sense at all and they may question the very reason for convicting on such a ‘petty’ thing as breach of trust. But breaking of faith or trust is a bigger offence. And for the US judge to recognize that is a huge thing – it shows that in the world, maybe not in India, trust and promise are high human virtues and if broken, like a mirror, one can never look into it ever again.

Rajat Gupta breached trust and he is being punished rightly. But how many of us can today believe that our system will even recognise this as a crime? That in a nutshell probably shows have deeply our values have fallen into the abyss.