IBM Boss sorry as driver clashes with journalists
By Manoj Sood

A senior executive of IBM-Daksh was caught up in a long, protracted ‘war of wits’ with a group of local journalists recently when his car accidentally hit a scribe’s car outside a shopping mall in Gurgaon. Being driven by his driver, the Hyundai Accent was turning back to pick up the wife of the executive when it hit the parked car of a reporter of a national news TV channel.

The IBM-Daksh vice president was forced to drive to the police station to strike a compromise with the reporter and face the wrath of his journalist friends as the latter insisted on the BPO executive’s physical presence as one of the two conditions of reaching a compromise and for not filing the police complaint against him. The IBM-Daksh executive had also to pay in cash the cost of repairing the car to the scribe at the police station.  Only after the two conditions were met was an agreement inked to make peace.

The drama which started at DLF Mega Mall, Gurgaon went on for about five hours before everyone shook hands and went home

The feud began when the driver of a Hyundai Accent owned by IBM-Daksh vice president Rajat hit the side window of a Maruti 800 car and caused a dent. The altercation between the driver and the scribe began on a heated note with driver not admitting to his fault. The wife of the executive called up her husband who agreed to bear the cost of repair. But when he was given the amount involved in the repair, the executive backtracked which resulted in an aggravated TV channel reporter.  Soon, the executive's wife left the place in another car.

The reporter DB Sharma called the police as well as his scribe friends for help as the driver was joined by three other IBM-Daksh executives representing Rajat. The matter was taken to the police station in DLF City. The representatives of Rajat tried to strike a compromise to dissuade the scribe from filing the police complaint against the driver. The journalist insisted that besides the full cost of fixing his car, he also wanted the car owner present physically to tender an apology at the police station. After initial hic-ups and a wait of about two hours, Rajat drove down to police station and said ‘sorry’ for the act of his driver.  The journalist’s friends were not too happy and let the IBM boss know in no uncertain terms their anger at the matter dragging on so long.  

Never a good idea to clash with journalists.  Even if you win a battle, you risk losing the war.  And of course the public hears the story.