Comrades of New India up for Venture Communism

Meghna Maiti

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chances won’t come again

And don’t speak too soon

For the wheel’s still in spin

And there’s no telling who that it’s naming

For the loser now will be later to win

Cause the times they are a-changing.

                       -The Times They Are A-Changing- Bob Dylan

Whenever a massive force comes into the world, its surely a time for reawakening at all levels, social, cultural, economic, political. Especially so, if it completely changes the paradigm and rewrites history. Similarly, when a strong force exits from the world, due to whatever reasons, it always makes a comeback, maybe in a different form. And in a new avatar, it certainly becomes a formidable power, difficult to be reined in. And this is especially true in today’s new India, as we are witnessing the power of ‘community’ or ‘strength of the collective’ seeping into the nooks and corners of the country. Startup India, an initiative by Modi government surely ushers in that era of freedom or democracy that was not even seen in the real communist ruled states of West Bengal or Kerala. Startup revolution has managed to shape lives of millions of common men with dreams and aspirations but scarce resources. This has also brought in a ‘trade-union’ sort of unity among professionals working across the sector that is remarkable. Hence, today when a Stayzilla or a TVF CEO gets into trouble, a number of people stand up for them, despite run-in with laws. Post Uber CEO incident, now HRs too are trying to hit knell on ‘cult of individuals,’ and usher in more diversity.

In such a structure, professionals have no choice but to appreciate ‘equality’ and to be nice to each other to form an eco-system and survive. The need for self-expression and experimentation, intellectual curiosity and wide-eyed vision driven by communism are also the norms and practices the startup community lives by. The fact that rules are only made to be broken and re-written are also by-product of communism, now practiced by the entrepreneur and startup world. While startup world has surely brought out many facets of communism seen in India, they have also gone beyond that and created employment for people and a healthy culture for gifted individuals to flourish, with less competition or class-caste-based divisions.

Going forward too, the only way the startup juggernauts could survive is by maintaining their market shares and surviving by rallying with each other. Policy makers too should encourage a shift to new growth engines, like new, unexplored sectors for startups. There should also be more protection from the government for employees of startup sectors, so that they don’t become victim of corporate wrath. And there could be more partnership arrangements between the startups and the corporate giants, wherein they could co-exist independently.

The real success of startups will only be determined by more and more participation of bright, enterprising youth of India who could form a wide network all across the world and create a collective entity that would make our country truly great.