Ratan Tata had incurred the displeasure of the then PM VP Singh during his career. The matter had reached the point of Tata’s resignation. He had made up his mind to resign, but Rajiv Gandhi did not allow this to happen. This was revealed by Ratan Tata himself in an interview given to Money Life.
It is about those days when Ratan Tata was made the chairman of Air India and Indian Airlines. “For three years, I was in Air India,” he told Money Life. Those were very difficult years because Air India was highly politicized during that time. We will not talk about it. That period was very difficult and there were different views. I wanted to resign, but Rajiv did not allow it to happen. So the day they lost power, I quit.”
Tata said, “I think I incurred the wrath of VP Singh, who came to power and might have thought it was a reflection on his leadership, but it was not. This was simply an issue of Air India being away from political ups and downs. “Then during that time, things got a little blurry in my mind.”
Clash with VP Singh government
There was a clash with the VP Singh government, when JRD Tata wrote a strong letter to VP Singh regarding allegations of foreign exchange violations at Tata Zug. Ratan Tata said in the interview, “Bhure Lal (former Enforcement Director, Foreign Exchange) was leading an investigation. I don’t think we did anything wrong and at the same time everything was disclosed – it was an issue whether the child of the parent or the grandchild of the parent company also needed RBI approval/permission for registration or not. This issue was never proven, because they found nothing that we did not disclose. I think the issue revolved more around Indian hotels rather than Tata, because there were a lot of foreign operations of Indian hotels at that time. Anyway, after that things became blurry in my mind until 1991.”
Used to exchange ideas with Rajiv Gandhi
In his interview with Money Life, Ratan Tata said, “I was fortunate to have the opportunity to exchange ideas with Rajiv and be part of the small group of people he meets from time to time in some of these areas. But they used to call for advice. At the same time, he made me the chairman of Air India. Like many things that happen in government, I was never asked. Rahul Bajaj was made the chairman of Indian Airlines. At least I was in India, but Rahul was abroad. We were not even told that we were being made chairman.”
