When
one sets out to do Human Resource Management as a student he hardly imagines it
comes with perils of becoming a soldier. But the recent case of Maruti human
resource manager, Awanish Kumar Dev, has shocked just about everyone.
There
are discussions on every day about the issue from varying angles: Was it pre-
meditated? Will the police actually get all the culprits? Who’s behind it all?
So
Dev stood jammed between the arguments of the company and the workers and paid
for the disagreement with his life. He tried to do a fair job. He was the one
who registered the present workers’ union.
So how exactly did the ones who killed him think that their purpose
would be better served this way, we still don’t know. But history has shown
clearly that if the key spokesperson of a cause is knocked out of the story, a
reasonable delay in decision-making is definitely achieved. This delay can help
the perpetrators work out things in their favour. What exactly is happening
behind the scene will emerge surely, if slowly, as media goes further into its
research.
So
what do such stories and cases do to the rest of us? Do they inspire us to work
at our best or can they scare us from going up to the last point? What would we
advise our youngsters then? To do glorious, memorable work or to play safe?
It
is ironical that sometimes being good at your job can serve against your
well-being.
There
have been enough cases in the recent past of good men paying for doing their
jobs well with their lives- bureaucrats like Satendra Dubey who defied the
corrupt road construction mafia in the Golden Quadrilateral Project; policemen
like Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte in the Mumbai Kasab
killings; journalists like Sushil Pathak of Dainik Bhaskar, J.Dey of Mid-Day
and Umesh Rajput of NaiDuniya who got knocked off for knowing too much. A
threatening note was found near the scene of Rajput’s murder which
said,"Khabar chaapna band nahi karoge toh mare jaoge" (If you don't
stop publishing news, you will be killed)."
Dev
probably knew which way the issue was building and resigned six months back as
did also a couple of his junior colleagues. But while their resignations were accepted,
his wasn’t. The management knew he had negotiated very well earlier and now
hoped he would re-work the miracle.
