NEW DELHI, June 8: The Government today announced a near-historic peace accord with Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan, bringing to an end over a year of bitter feuding between the two equal partners of auto-giant Maruti Udyog Limited.Announcing this in Parliament, a visibly impassioned Minister of Industry Sikander Bakht said ending the dispute would remove the obstacles in Maruti's path, and allow it to take necessary steps to retain its market leadership. Bakht's initiative, however, came in for sharp criticism with various opposition leaders alleging a "total sellout and surrender". Left members staged a protest walkout in the Rajya Sabha while Janata Dal leader Jaipal Reddy said Maruti Udyog managing director R S S L N Bhaskarudu had been sacrificed. With Speaker G M C Balayogi unable to keep members in check, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had to intervene in the debate in the Lok Sabha and state that nothing surreptitious had been done, and that he was ready to hold discussions with them onthe matter. Eventually, however, it was left to Bakht, the main architect of the settlement between the two joint owners of Maruti Udyog, to defend the patch-up. While pointing out that the feud between the partners had held back Maruti's efforts to develop new models to take on the competition, Bakht parried questions with rare aplomb. Where is the question of this agreement being anti-swadeshi, he told an over-flowing press conference to announce the event in the evening. "Swadeshi encourages joint ventures in hi-technology ventures - cars fall in this category." Asked to comment on his predecessor Murasoli Maran's stance on the matter, he said: "I will not agree on his statement that the Maruti issue is a prestige issue for the country. India is too big for Maruti to be a prestige issue.Addressing the joint press conference with Bakht, Suzuki Motor's executive vice president Y Saito refused to go into the controversy over Bhaskarudu and Suzuki's opposition to his appointment.Thanking Bakht for his role in the settlement, Saito took recourse in language problems to avoid answering questions: "He (Bakht) is a respected elder. along with my not good ability at English language, I would request him . to answer all your questions on my behalf. his views will represent both of our views."Under the terms of the agreement thrashed out over the past couple of months, and signed in Bakht's office at 5 pm last Saturday, Bhaskarudu will retire by December 31, 1999 and marketing chief Jagdish Khattar - a Suzuki favourite - will take over till the year 2002. At which point, it will, in any case, be Suzuki's turn to nominate a managing director. Khattar, under the agreement reached, will, however, be appointed as a nominee of the government on Maruti's board in tomorrow's board meeting. He will be appointed joint managing director on July 1, 1998 and, a year later, he will be appointed as second managing director. With current chairman Probir Sengupta to step down in tomorrow's boardmeeting, Suzuki nominee Y Saito will also be appointed chairman.CarspeakA B Vajpayee, Prime Minister: "The decision was not taken behind anyone's back. The whole government and the country is behind the decision."Sikander Bakht, industry Minister: "India is too big for Maruti to be a prestige issue. Swadeshi encourages foreign investment in hi-tech - cars are hi-tech."S Jaipal Reddy, Janata Dal: "Maruti's managing director, Bhaskarudu, has been sacrificed".Somnath Chaterjee, CPI-M: "The govt has done a complete somersault on the crucial issue of Maruti".
