"Was Twisted": Amitabh Kant On Row Over L&T Chair's 'Stare At Wife' Remark

Larsen & Toubro Chairman SN Subrahmanyan's controversial comment - "I regret not being able to make you work on Sundays... What do you do at home? How long can you stare at your wife?" - was "twisted" and "taken out of context", Amitabh Kant, India's G20 Sherpa, told NDTV Friday evening.

Mr Kant explained the remark away as "a top-class CEO... just trying to inspire and motivate his team". "He was telling them, '... please work hard, so we can deliver our projects before time'."

He also insisted Indians "must be very clear... very few countries have been able to grow at nine to 10 per cent, year after year, without working hard", and said, "If we are to get out of the middle-income trap, we must work hard... but that doesn't mean you don't have work-life balance."

Declaring himself also "a strong believer (in 'working hard')", Mr Kant said, "I slog it out. I believe in slogging it out. I believe in hard work. I truly believe that if India is to become a developed nation by 2047 (we must work hard) ... there are very countries - post-WWII Japan was working hard, Korea was working hard when it was growing, and China worked hard for three decades."

"I know Mr Subrahmanyan very well... he is a top-class CEO, and he is someone who has got a stellar record. He has delivered as the CEO of L&T and he was just trying to inspire and motivate his team... he was telling them, '... please, work hard so we can deliver our projects before time'."

"Now that has been twisted and taken out of context," he said.

The row broke last week after a video, from what seemed like an internal meeting with employees, showed Mr Subrahmanyan responding to a question about Saturday being a working day.

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"I regret I am not able to make you work Sundays (also) to be honest. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be happier... I work on Sundays also," he responded. "What do you do at home? How long can you stare at your wife? How long can wives stare at husbands? Get to the office and work."

He then claimed a Chinese acquaintance told him of a 90-hour work week in that country.

The video went viral online and Mr Subrahmanyan's comments were panned; many also compared it to Infosys founder Narayana Murthy's equally controversial call for a 70-hour work week.

"Another CEO promoting slavery shamelessly..." one user said, while another claimed L&T is "one of the worst when it comes to work-life balance" and that salaries, particularly for freshers, is poor.

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Facing furious backlash, the company later said the remarks reflected the larger ambition of nation-building and emphasised the fact that "extraordinary outcomes require extraordinary effort".

L&T's Human Resources chief, Sonica Muraleedharan also defended the remarks, declaring they had been "misinterpreted" and taken out of context.

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