Even though there are international laws to ensure physical safety of such voluntary whistle blowers hardly anyone gets protection under such laws. The purpose of this write up is not Dr. Zhivago or the Israeli Whistle blower but a funny thing called corporate whistle blower policy enumerated and published in the Annual Report of Reliance Industries Ltd. This seeks to promote dissent within the Company and has named certain officials to whom such complaints can be lodged for further verification and suitable remedial steps. If companies are serious about such whistle blowing they should publish such dissenting opinion, hold a transparent investigation to prove bonafides of  the corporation in upholding ethical business standards. I wonder what could have happened to any one RIL employee if he had chosen to blow the whistle when the erstwhile conglomerate chose to use computer generated local phone numbers to terminate international calls to avoid payment of Access deficit charges to DoT?  RIL's ex Chairman had used all his political clout to exterminate Nusli Wadia those days. It is a corporate folklore when Gurumurthi was running a series of articles on the arm twisting tactics employed by the company. the Late Dhirubai Ambani bought a pink newspaper called Business and Political observer only to answer the charges Gurumurthi published in the morning. The news paper was an eveninger.

Companies should be subjected to independent audit on ethical business standards to whom such complaints could be made for further investigation. Till then such policies will only lie on paper.