My kites, my memories
PrashantNews
Ratan Tata kept controversies at arm’s-length during his lifetime. But once he came to Dehradun on Nov 15, 2009 to deliver a lecture followed by an interactive session. He made a startling revelations stating that his plans to start an international airline in collaboration with Singapore Airlines in 1990s was thwarted by an individual who demanded a bribe of Rs 15 crore.
I filed this story for Business Standard for which I was working as Principal Correspondent. The story was prominently displayed in the newspaper next day. During the interactive session, he talked about his retirement plan also. “After retirement, I want to enjoy the things that I had wanted to (do) earlier,” Tata said in front of the then Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank at AMN Ghosh Auditorium.
Showing a gesture of goodwill, Nishank took the opportunity to urge Tata to settle in Uttarakhand. “We will be honoured if you chose Uttarakhand as your new home after retirement,” Nishank said.
Nevertheless, Tata didn’t talk about his Nano project even as the first small car had already been rolled out from Tata facility in Pantnagar a year ago.
The next day my Editor wrote an editorial saying Tata was merely whining and seeking to occupy high moral ground. After reading the editorial, Tata shot back saying he was surprised to read it under the headline “Name and Shame Mr Tata”. “…I believe you (Editor) would have realized that in answering the question, the message I was conveying was that the elimination of corruption would need to be a self-imposed value system, where one would be willing to make a major sacrifice and not consider a bribe as a mean to an end. ….I wanted to go to bed at night knowing that I had not succumbed” – nothing more, nothing less, Tata said in his rejoinder which was published verbatim in the letter to the Editor column.
Coming back to Nano car, after the Singur fiasco, the Tata Motors decided to roll out the first small car from its Pantnagar facility where it had invested Rs 1000 crore. I was regularly filing stories on these developments. In fact, the first story about Nano being rolled out of Pantnagar was carried by Business Standard. Once I was sitting in the office of the Chief Secretary when the phone from a top Tata Motors official came. After Indu Pande kept the phone back on the cradle, I asked him whether I can file the story also. He just smiled. After that, I filed many stories on Tata Nano.
What I liked about Ratan Tata was that he had a great sense of ability to see future growth of his companies. For example, the acquisition of JLR was a very big step for Tata Motors. A decade ago, I was in Lincoln to attend the marriage of my niece Ruchi. Once I was passing from a street, I saw a Corus plant where it was written prominently – a Tata Steel enterprise. I felt very proud. At least, we have one brand called Tata which is hallowed. Why can’t all companies in India follow the high standards of Tata Group? Will they? They should!