A CASE OF MISFIRE RATHER THAN A MISFIT

WHEN former top bureaucrat of the Union finance ministry Atanu Chakraborty resigned as the non-executive chairman of HDFC Bank on Wednesday, markets bought into the message of his resignation letter with a momentous fall.

- DIPAK MONDAL

In two days after his mention of “values and ethics” in the letter, the bank lost around @1 lakh crore in its market value. The fall could either signify Chakraborty’s stature as a bureaucrat or a structural problem in the country’s second largest lender, or both.

The jury is still out on what caused Chakraborty’s outburst. His succinct—but sharply worded—resignation letter has stumped observers. Was it a case of dissent at the top or a deliberate push towards cleaning the labyrinth of corporate decision making, where mal-intent could lie latent for years?