Tatas to Tatas

By T Kannamala : Author `News Chase' on the thrills, frills & perils of news reporting

Sixty eight years after its nationalisation in 1953, the Air India is back with the Tatas. In the intervening period, one witnessed the reputed airline nose diving into a debt-ridden untouchable in the aviation industry. It is primarily the sordid story of the personal animosity of a politician with its founder JRD Tata.

After he became the Prime Minister in India in March 1977, one of the first acts of the Morarji Desai led new government was to reconstitute the Atomic Energy Commission and the Air India. Thereby hangs a tale according to R M Lala, who wrote the book `Beyond the last blue Mountain’ on JRD Tata in 1992.                      An extract from the book `Beyond the last blue mountains - A life of JRD Tata' by R M Lala (A Penguin Book):

The first significant meeting of Desai and JRD was in mid-1950s when Desai was Chief Minister of undivided Bombay state. JRD called on him with Sir Homi Modi, then head of the Tata Electronic Companies, which supplied electricity to Bombay city. The meeting commenced with JRD telling Desai that Tatas had made a projection of electrical power demand for coming years and estimated that there would be power shortage. Morarji replied, `no there will not be. I have seen to it’.

JRD rose from his seat.

`Where are you going?’ demanded Desai.

JRD replied, `we have worked out, sir, the demand for electrical power in the coming years. We say there would be power shortage if additional generating capacity is not created. You say it won’t. We do not want to waste your time, leave alone ours’.

It appears from the book on JRD Tata that Morarji neither forgot nor forgave this incident in his political career.

Oct 09,2021