Way Off the Mark

8216;Politicians are Protected, not Professionals8217;

India8217;s Mr Technocrat says all manner of frivolous cases were filed against him because he dared to differ

IT8217;S difficult not to miss the great sadness not so much bitterness in V. KRISHNAMURTHY8217;S voice even today, when he recalls how, when he was going to the US as the executive trustee of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in 1995, he was virtually dragged out of an aeroplane and told, as if he was a convicted felon, that he couldn8217;t leave the country.

The CBI, which had slapped all manner of cases on him in 1992, thought India8217;s Mr Technocrat would skip the country. Krishnamurthy headed BHEL from 1972-77; was Secretary, Heavy Industries for three years, was the person who actually ensured Maruti took off by signing an agreement with Suzuki at a time when nobody took India seriously, and finally headed SAIL from 1985-90, before joining the Planning Commission.

Anyway, Krishnamurthy stayed, and seven years later, was absolved of two charges. The third charge was dropped by the CBI itself. And no one, he says, even said sorry. Excerpts from an interview with Sunil Jain:

Why do you think the cases were framed against you?
Because I dared to differ with the prevalent view on disinvestment. I said the practice of 8216;8216;bundling together8217;8217; the shares of various PSUs was not transparent, it fetched the government a lower price and was even unconstitutional. I complained about this to then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh. I was asked to head a committee to suggest better methods, but clearly some people didn8217;t want the committee to work. Hence, the flurry of charges.

I was pursued because I differed, because I took decisions. Why should anyone take a decision if this is to be the outcome? It8217;s safest to just do nothing. Politicians are always protected, there8217;s no one to help professionals.

Briefly, what were the cases?
There were three. Harshad Mehta had come to meet me when I was in the Planning Commission, to expound his views on encouraging foreign investment in the stock markets 8212; I referred him to the Finance Secretary. But since one of my sons was a director on a firm which had borrowed Rs 32 lakh from Harshad Mehta, this was construed as my favouring him. This charge was dismissed by the trial court in 1999. Second, when I was chairman of Maruti Udyog and R.C. Bhargava was managing director, we were accused of favouring a Madras-based firm Hydraulics Limited which supplied shock absorbers. Though the price paid to it was the same as that to other suppliers, a case was filed as the firm is owned by a distant relative 8212; this was dismissed last fortnight, saying even a prima facie case had not been made out.

Even more bizarre is the third case of an NRI friend of my son, Binay Jacob, who was accused of making crores. Since he was a friend of the family, all his alleged wrong-doings were then supposed to have been done at the behest of V. Krishnamurthy. The CBI itself dropped this case two years ago saying it found no evidence.

Was your business hit by this? Were you victimised?
Well, for ten years, we couldn8217;t raise money from banks or from the stock markets. Clearly, we were not allowed to contribute to the economy as much as we could have.

Do you feel very bitter?
It8217;s more a deep sense of sadness. What8217;s sad is that, even assuming the government acted on incorrect information, it took a full ten years to say there was not even a prima facie case. And that8217;s for someone of my standing. Worse, when all the charges were dropped, no one even said sorry.

8216;Want to be Safe? Toe the Political Line 8217;

Maruti8217;s ex-chief says he8217;s accepted that this is the way things happen in India

Maruti8217;s ex-chief R.C Bhargava cannot meet at 9 am because he has to be at Tis Hazari court at 10 am 8216;8216;to get permission to go abroad8217;8217;. At noon, he8217;s all praise for the judge. Why? Well, Bhargava8217;s had to go through this routine 48 times since he was charged with corruption in 1994, and each time he needed to give a bank guarantee for Rs 1 lakh. That was tedious because you have to take a bank officer to the court each time 8212; this time, the judge accepted a fixed deposit for that amount. It8217;s much easier this way, he says with relief.

Small comfort perhaps, but Bhargava, who had one of the three charges against him dropped just last week, has learnt to derive comfort from such small things. The price, he says without naming names, of falling foul of politicians. Many of the stories, though, of the fights Suzuki Motor Company had with ministers like Karunakaran and K.K. Tiwari 8212; and they perceived Bhargava as a Suzuki stooge 8212; are, of course public knowledge. Excerpts from an interview on the charges against him:

Why were so many charges filed against you?
Well, in one case the one dismissed at the pre-trial stage last week, I think they wanted to fix former Maruti chief Krishnamurthy. They found the daughter of the Chennai-based Hydraulics whom we gave some business to, was married to his son 8212; so said there was a conspiracy. But since he was a non-executive chairman at that time, the only way he could be brought in, was if I was charged as well. Interestingly, I was charged with conspiracy, never pecuniary benefit in this case. I think I fell foul with some political bosses also, and that didn8217;t help either.

What were the charges?
The charge was that I and Krishnamurthy colluded to help benefit Hydraulics. The CBI alleged we8217;d paid them one rupee or so more for shock absorbers supplied for one month that added up to Rs 333, and had allowed them to develop shock absorbers for us despite their bid being the highest. What they didn8217;t pay attention to is the fact that we used exactly the same procedure for 375 other vendors for other products. We also didn8217;t go by the price bid since we were asking them to develop fresh products for us; we then gave each vendor exactly the same price. This case was dropped eight years after it was filed.

There8217;s another charge that I didn8217;t follow tender procedures while awarding a transport contract from Kandla. This contract was awarded after Krishnamurthy, as the MD, approved it, as did the entire board. The government also inquired into it, found no fault. The CAG did the same, and also found no loss of revenue. Once again, no allegations of personal gain were made.

The third case is about us selling cars on budget day without excise clearance. We8217;d cleared 12 cars for sale but they could not be despatched before 4 pm on budget day. So we allotted excise-cleared cars in one of our showrooms. Again, no charge of personal benefit was made against me.

What have you been doing since these charges were filed, and how did they really affect your life?
I set up my consulting firm to help firms deal with general management issues like marketing, quality control and so on. Initially, when I was still in Maruti, the government had moved the Company Law Board to debar me from being a director in any company. The CLB, however, dismissed the case. I8217;m on the board of seven companies like Polaris Software, Grasim, and IL038;FS.

Did being a former bureaucrat help 8230; with all your batchmates in positions of authority?
At an individual level, everyone was nice. But once you8217;re being prosecuted by the system, no one can do anything. I clearly couldn8217;t be on the board of any PSU, for instance. Similarly, I just had to go to the court to get permission to travel abroad each time 8212; there8217;s nothing any batchmate could do about this. I8217;ve come to accept that this is how things happen in India. And if you want to be really safe, you have to toe the political line. Otherwise, you run the risk of facing what I8217;m facing.