SOME of the speeches that company chairmen deliver at annual general meetings are eye-openers in their own right as they go beyond managing a business of soaps, cakes or cigarettes. The ITC chairman Mr. YC Deveshwar’s recent address to his shareholders is one such craving for comment.

According to him, the time has come to differentiate between `an Indian company’ and `a company operating in India’. The difference may appear thin, but his thesis is that for the reforms process to succeed, the corporate sector has to make certain sacrifices in an economy where competition is on the increase even as tariff barriers get lowered by the day.

In this scenario, it is truly Indian companies which are likely to go that extra mile to source their materials and create value chains within the country. Multinationals might turn a Nelson’s eye and exploit the opportunity to outsource their raw materials and inputs abroad.

The underlying assumption is that for global companies solely driven by profit considerations, commitment to the economy is not a priority. By the way, are all Indian companies committed to the economy, one might well ask? And, haven’t some of them frittered away precious foreign exchange, played havoc with the system and yet continued in their leadership position?

He has reinforced his argument by showing how ITC Bhadrachalam was being nursed back to health at considerable cost, rather than dump it and how a whole lot of farmers stood to gain in the bargain.

Mr. Deveshwar may be right, but only in a limited sense. First, it is unfair to paint all global companies with the same brush.

Going by his prescription, we need to prop up Indian companies as their global counterparts cannot be trusted upon anyway. This is fallacious, for there are also multinationals operating as law-abiding corporate entities in the country and it will be patently unfair to eye them with suspicion. Far from it. Second, there is enough evidence to prove that `Indianness’ has not always been a virtue with several Indian companies. The kind of distinction being sought to be made will not stand the test of time.

In an economy which is getting integrated globally, the need of the hour is to provide corporates a level playing field, irrespective of their origin.

There are black sheep on either side and the best approach would be to keep a constant vigil on companies and treat them on merit, Indian or global. Or else, we will end up backing the wrong horses.