Tata Saga – part 4
Everyone who could possibly back stab the Tata family has already done so. Now it is the turn of pros. Appended below is the statement of Harish Salve – a great beneficiary of business from the Tatas, esp in telecom. He basically says the Tatas are unfit to lead the group, implying Chandra is better for the employees, shareholders, customers and India.
I disagree. With two Caucasian wives in two consecutive years, his ability to do critical thinking or to exercise judgement is seriously in doubt. However, it is important to understand why Harish decided to back Chandra over Noel.
Firstly as NKP Salves son and Mata Nirmala Devis nephew, he has a perspective on power play which is superior to most. Second, he is a Christian and his father’s sister who was also born a Christian became Mata Nirmala Devi of the kundalini awakening fame. I had the opportunity to meet her several times and some of the photos of Ganesha emerging from smoke were taken by me. Mata Nirmala Devi then established her global headquarters outside the Vatican. And her next door neighbour in Delhi was the famous defence dealer Chandraswami. He has two daughters who are married to two brothers – Muslim industrialists from Jodhpur. His ex wife was a Hindu. So he understands cultural diversity very well. He also understands which side his bread is buttered.
Harish believes the Finance Minister will support Chandrasekhar over Noel Tata. And that it was on her instructions that RBI issued the FAQ just before the board meeting clarifying on what are public funds. The document issued by RBI finishes off whatever credibility was left of the RBI. My first employer had an account in the RBI. One that predates the creation of RBI as the Central Bank.
I understand regulation both as a curious student of regulation. But more as a practitioner. I spent years building or helping empower regulators. This includes creating their organisation structure, working out the job descriptions of their leadership and even selecting the right people to man them. But then, these organisations go rogue quite easily. The only way to make a regulator more effective is to empower it. But then those you empower can go rogue quite powerfully.
KP Krishnan the former Secretary in charge of capital markets is a wholly dependent independent director in Tata companies. His wife is one as well. He is not alone. The tentacles of the deep state go very deep.
But it is not that just because a person happened to be born in the same state as Chandrasekhar is going to be his avid supporter. There are some outstanding Tamilians in Tatas who would be really happy to see him go. Balaji in Tata Motors and Kriti at TCS are two that come to mind. One went to IIM and the other to IIT. In general ones finds that the IIT IIM types don’t get sold out very easily. And social pressures, esp alumni pressures not to indulge in hanky panky are very high. This is not true for say NIT or the CA types.Activate to view larger image,
