NEW DELHI, March 5: Suzuki directors Y Saito and J Sugimori met the heavy industries secretary P Shankar on Thursday and extended an olive branch for settling the acrimony with the government outside the International Council of Arbitration.The two Suzuki directors, who arrived in the Capital on Tuesday night, have come with the mission to establish a rapport with the new political establishment. With government-formation taking some time, the two directors made a "courtesy call" on Shankar, the senior-most bureaucrat overseeing the Maruti imbroglio. This was their third meeting with Shankar in the last two months.Sources say that with a new government round the corner, the secretary is not in a position to "move even a millimetre" but the Suzuki directors decided to meet him to "do some rapport-building". Ever since Suzuki's relations soured with former heavy industries secretary T R Prasad, they have been repenting and are keen to be on a smooth wicket with the top bureaucracy in the industryministry.Aware of the fact that Shankar cannot steer the Maruti imbroglio in any direction as a new industries minister is expected to assume office in a few days, the two Suzuki directors are understood to have conveyed their desire to Shankar to "let bygones be bygones and negotiate with a clean heart".The conciliatory message, sources say, has been prompted to a large extent by George Fernandes's inflammatory remarks against multi-national companies on Wednesday.Keen to catch straws in the wind and make the right moves lest they are caught yet again on the wrong foot with the political establishment, the two directors met on a "very friendly note" with the heavy industries secretary. The immediate objective before them seems to get the bureaucracy on its side at the very least and hope for the best if a hardcore swadeshi (like George Fernandes) gets the industry ministry.Sources reveal that the talks were of a general kind and no concrete issues were touched. Internally, the top brass at Suzuki isbelieved to have reconciled itself to RSSLN Bhaskarudu's tenure as managing director but in return they want to extract a big price for agreeing on his appointment. With this objective they have made noises about diluting the managing director's position by insisting on important decisions getting made by a committee of directors. Suzuki is also believed to be insistent upon Jagdish Khattar executive director, marketing and sales, to be reinducted on the board.Attempts to contact Sugimori and Saito proved futile. Both of them, who are being chaperoned by R C Bhargava's son Aditya Bhargava, have rendered themselves incommunicado.
