Writing on the wall

It was the turn of the Mahatma to help bureaucrats silence industrialists demanding tax deduction on corporate social responsibility expenses. At an interactive session with revenue department officials, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, one of the industrialists present pressed for such deduction arguing that social responsibility was the government's prerogative. He went on to say that the government would next ask corporations in India to shell out funds to run the police forces. As everyone turned to the Central Board of Direct Taxes chairperson for a response, she pointed at a photograph of Mahatma Gandhi displayed on one of the walls in the hall, and said, "I will only read out what is written on the photograph of Mahatma Gandhi." The quotation, scrawled at the bottom of Gandhiji's picture read: "Industry... should regard themselves as trustees and servants of the poor..."