HINDUSTAN MORCHA PRIVATE LIMITED

I had just alighted from the Churchgate fast, when a crowd of protesters caught my attention. What attracted me to this crowd were their colourful banners and the knack of protesting. On observing closely, some of the banners read 'Jahan Par Ho Locha, Wahan Karo Morcha'. Below that, Hindustan Morcha Private Limited (HMPL) was scribbled with the contact number.

Smelling a story in that banner, I called up the number and fixed an interview with the managing director. It was exactly two p.m. when I reached their office. HMPL read distinct on the door, which the doorman opened for me to enter. There hung on the right hand side of the wall, a board that read, 'Give me a Cause and I will give you a Morcha'. It read similar to 'Give me Blood and I will give you Freedom'. 'Maybe freedom is expressed like this in modern times', I pacified myself.

Mr. Rajiv Panjwani, my interviewee, opened his cabin door and introduced himself. His office was nothing less than a presidential suite of a luxurious hotel. "I don't think you have any trouble making your end's meet", I complimented him for his office. "Yes, we are grateful to our loyal customers", he chipped in.

"And who are these loyal customers?" the question inadvertently popped out of my mouth. To which he pointed at the huge billboard. I followed his finger and saw a list of their honourable and loyal customers; labour unions, doctors, truck drivers, bankers, Indian Airlines, BEST, vegetable vendors, Air India… and many more. I figured out that Indian Airlines was their long time customer.

My interview commenced.

Q) What is HMPL all about?

A) Hindustan Morcha Private Limited is the voice of the protesters, presented in a professional manner. You see, in India there are so many things being protested about, but all the protesters do not have the required knack. Yes, after holding a few morchas, one does get better but that takes away a lot of time. In today's world where time is so important, morchas have to be organized within a short period. It is at this stage, where we come in and organize just about everything for a successful morcha.

Q) Which was your first assignment?

A) I would not like to reveal the name of that particular organization, you know, secrecy is one of the clauses in our contract. But I started by preparing a list of those companies and organizations, which protested the most. Then I circled the top three and approached them with my plans. It was the third one, which gave me the break. The people, whom I spoke to, got very excited and informed me to wait for a month, as they were planning to hold a morcha at that time. After that, there was no looking back.

Q) Could you shed more light on how do you go about organizing a morcha?

A) Oh! That will be my pleasure. You see, I have hired professional people for the entire process - from recruiting more personnel to graphic experts. When the client approaches us, we hold brain storming sessions to get ideas and one liners. By the way, we have got so many ideas and one liners by now that we are planning to take out a CD-ROM of it. After the ideas, we illustrate it with comic characters and advanced graphics. The banners are made then with the protest lines printed on them. Handouts are also made in some cases. The demand letters are then printed out and mailed to the concerning people. If our client wants, then we also create a home page on the net stating their cause of morcha and their demands. Concomitantly, floppies are sent, instead of letters, to the management stating the same.

Q) It is also rumoured that you give certain type of training to the people (he cut me off before I could finish).

A) Yes, yes that's right. Just two days before the morcha, we call in all the members of the organization participating in it to our training centre. I have personally appointed the trainers out there. The job of the trainers is to teach, grill and educate them on holding the morcha. Controlling hunger in case of a hunger strike is an also a part of the training. We advise them on how to catch some jobless people to attend the morcha in case there aren't sufficient members of their organization attending it. Also, there are well-defined ways of doing all sorts of things like walking, holding the banner, modulating your vocal chords, right use of words. And things like that.

Q) How much do you charge for organizing a single morcha?

A) Well, that varies. The rates depend upon the factors like duration of the morcha, the use of high-tech equipment. Our company has divided the morchas into three sections - first is the urgent morcha, followed by general morcha and the last is the normal morcha. The rate for the first one is Rs. 75000 per day, the general is Rs. 50000 and the latter is Rs. 25000 per day. We, also, give discounts if it is going to be held for more than 10 days.

Q) How is the response, considering the fact that you don't advertise much?

A) Stupendous. I just love this country. Everyone here is protesting against something or the other. After all in the city of 14 million democratic people, you can't have a single law pleasing all of them. There are bound to be protests. As for advertising, I believe in word-of-mouth publicity. A satisfied customer is the best salesman.

Q) What are plans for the future?

A) we are planning to launch a public issue later this year and the funds so collected will be used to set offices throughout the state, first and then throughout the country. The preference shares will be issued to our loyal customers and equity shares to ordinary people. And if the things go well, then by the year 2005, we will have offices in the whole of Asia.

"Wish you all the best for your future", I greeted, "and thank you for your sparing your valuable time." I left his office pondering 'whoever said India lacked entrepreneurs'.

© NIMESH SHAH 1999

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