BackSingur brings sadness that we couldn’t do anything, says Tata
Singur brings sadness that we couldn’t do anything, says Tata
PremiumCyrus P. Mistry (left) with Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata during the Tata Global Beverages AGM at Grand hotel in Kolkata on Friday. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint
Kolkata: As Ratan Tata’s 21-year journey as chairman of the Tata Group nears its end, he raised the hope that Tata Motors Ltd could set up a manufacturing facility in West Bengal—the state it had initially chosen for its prized Nano car factory—despite the car maker’s bitter experience over the past six years.
An “emotional" Tata, who on Friday refused to share with other stakeholders the honour of proposing the name of his successor Cyrus P. Mistry for reappointment as a TGBL director, said Singur didn’t any longer bring to his mind “a sense of anger—just a sense of sadness that we couldn’t do anything here". Mistry will be taking over as chairman of the company in December when Tata turns 75.
Some 35km from Kolkata, Singur was the site originally selected for Tata Motors’ Nano car factory. In 2006, the company got into an agreement with the West Bengal government, and the latter promptly acquired and allotted land for the factory.
He had said at the time that he chose Singur because the eastern part of India had missed out on the industrial growth that the rest of the country had witnessed since the early 1990s.
But the factory eventually had to be relocated to Sanand in Gujarat months before production was to start at Singur because of violent protests spearheaded by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party. Tata himself announced the decision to move the factory in Kolkata in October 2008.
The resistance that the party managed to foment against land acquisition for industrial projects helped the TMC seize power from the Left Front. Following last year’s change of guard at Writers’ Buildings—the state’s administrative headquarters—the West Bengal government promulgated a law to seize from Tata Motors its aborted factory at Singur.
The controversial Singur Act has been legally challenged by Tata Motors, and an appeal is currently pending at the Supreme Court. The legal battle originated at the Calcutta high court last year—it had initially held the law to be valid, while suggesting some corrections, but that verdict was overturned by an appeals court, which said in June this year that the law was unconstitutional.
On Friday, Tata blamed “government decisions" for the turn of events in Singur, adding that he did not yet have any “bias" or “prejudice" against the state. His comment was seen by a section of state government officials as an indication that decisions could be reversed if Writers’ Buildings chooses to be supportive.
“We have no intention of walking away from West Bengal," Tata said, assuring shareholders that the registered office of TGBL, which he described as a “Calcutta company", will not be moved from Kolkata. TGBL, though, moved its corporate office to Bangalore years ago.
Mistry said he didn’t immediately wish to comment on the group’s affairs. “Next year" was all he said in answer to a barrage of questions from the media.
Partha Chatterjee, West Bengal’s commerce and industries minister, declined to comment. However, a key state government official said Writers’ Buildings was keeping a close watch on “how things unfold after Mistry takes over" from Tata. This person did not want to be named.
Later in the day, Tata visited the Tata Medical Center, a cancer hospital in Kolkata that he had promised to build at the AGM of the erstwhile Tata Tea Ltd in 2004. (The company has since been renamed TGBL.) It was the first major investment that the group had proposed in West Bengal in many decades.
Apart from the hospital, most investment proposals of the group for the state have not materialized. Besides the Singur project, the group also had to abandon plans to expand Tata Metaliks Ltd.
Tata said on Tuesday he was happy that the cancer hospital had started treating a large number of children suffering from leukaemia. The aim was to create a quality care facility in eastern India for people suffering from cancer so that they did not have to travel to Mumbai, Tata said.
The hospital inaugurated by him last year isn’t fully functional as yet, largely on account of staff shortages. “Our standards are high so it is difficult to get people," said a doctor at the hospital, who did not want to be identified.
The hospital, which runs largely on endowments from trusts run by the Tata group, is to be expanded—it has lately secured through auction more land in Rajarhat township on the outskirts of Kolkata where it is located.
Calling, what he described as an “emotional meeting", to order at 10.30 sharp on Friday morning, Tata went on a trip down memory lane. He placed on record his gratitude to R.K. Krishna Kumar, the vice-chairman of Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company of the group, for expanding TGBL.
He said TGBL’s revenue had grown from 300 crore in 1991—the year Kumar joined Tata Tea as director—to 6,700 crore in fiscal 2012 because of his “vision and drive". “Krishna and I share what is perhaps the greatest fusion brought on by distress," Tata said, referring to allegations in the late 1990s of the group supporting “anti-national activities in Assam".
Kumar had said in a newspaper interview that Tata Tea had to pay militant outfits in Assam to protect its business interests in the state. Following this, he had to step down from the company’s board. The charges against the company were later quashed.
“We stood together again after the attack on the Taj Mahal hotel," Tata added, referring to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008. “It was a great privilege to be with him."
As emotions swelled and shareholders clamoured to shake hands with him for what they thought could be the last opportunity to do so, Tata said this wasn’t the last TGBL AGM he was attending. “I will be back…to sit where you are sitting today, to ask my successor questions about the company," he said.
manish.b@livemint.com
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