Cyrus Mistry’s camp says he was fired for going after Tata group’s holy cows
1 min read 11 Nov 2016, 01:36 AM ISTIssues Cyrus Mistry acted against or sought to while at Tata, some involving violations of governance principles, may have led to his ouster, say people close to Mistry
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People close to Cyrus P. Mistry, the ousted chairman of Tata Sons Ltd, say that he may have paid the price for going after what they termed "holy cows" in the Tata group. These people, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were minor and major issues he acted against or sought to, some involving violations of good governance principles, that may have all added up to his ouster. Some of these instances have been highlighted in recent days.
One involves the irregular payments made by AirAsia India. Another involves the fact that Mistry was pressing C. Sivasankaran to pay his share of the DoCoMo arbitration award. To be fair, the Tata group has clarified that in the first case, it is following up the findings of a forensic report with a so-called First Information Report (or police complaint) and that in the second, it is pursuing all legal remedies to ensure that Sivasankaran pays up.
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Mint couldn't independently ascertain whether a police complaint had been filed by AirAsia India (or the Tata group) or whether Tata Sons had responded to Sivasankaran's pre-emptive legal notice to it in September with one of its own.
The people close to Mistry have highlighted a few other instances, which are not being reported here because they need to be independently verified. Still, it is clear that Mistry's response to Tata Sons’ claims that he under-performed and also tried to almost seize control of various Tata operating companies by ensuring he was the sole common director between them and Tata Sons, will revolve around these "holy cows" and the governance issues.
