When Ratan Tata confronted gangster over extortion bid: ‘…contract to kill me’ | Latest News India

As industrialist Ratan Tata was conferred with the first ‘Udyog Ratna’ Award by the Maharashtra government on Saturday, an old video of him recalling an encounter with a gangster during his initial days as the chairman of Tata Group has resurfaced online. In the video, Tata recounts the episode and reflects on his decision not to give in to the tactics thrown by the supposed gangster.

The video, originally shared by the prestigious Columbia Business School on their YouTube channel, is nearly a decade old. The 85-year-old business magnate recalled the incident and said, “15 days after I became the chairman, we had a huge union eruption in Telco, now Tata Motors…a gangster decided there was considerable wealth in our union and wanted to take control of it…he had around 200 disruptive, violent, intimidating followers…but we made a mistake by taking the union for granted…”

‘…we could never do that’

Tata said he then decided to confront the gangster instead of giving in to his pressure. “…people felt we should appease him, get him out of the way, but I was of the view that we could never do that….the police were in his pocket…he demoralised the management with his intimidation tactics,” he said.

The former Tata Group chairman said he knew if he gave in, it would never end. “…I knew he would take over everything and run us like a gangster unit…I continued to confront him and he called a strike, stopping the plant’s operations…the workers were afraid of coming back for fear of their families.”

As a last resort, Tata said he stayed in the particular plant for three days with the workers to dispel their fears, which made them return and resume functioning. “He (the gangster) kept saying the plant was closed…we took out some advertisements to show that the people had returned…they saw the management was firm…so, finally, he lost,” he said.

According to Tata, the alleged gangster was later arrested after the police intervened. However, when he was released from jail, the gangster put out a contract to kill Tata, he said. “People wanted me to reconcile with him, but we just never did that…looking back on it, I would have never done it any other way,” the philanthropist remarked at the end of the video.

Tata was awarded the esteemed honour as an acknowledgement of the profound impact that both he and the Tata Group have had on India’s economy and society.