Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live
Mistry slams Ratan Tata in email, SEBI wades in Shivpal speaks of ‘grand alliance’ for UP elections
SPEAKING UP Ousted chief says group had no choice but to write down $18bn
A fierce fight appeared to be brewing for control of the $103-billion Tata group with details of ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry’s email to the Tata Sons board tumbling out on Wednesday.
The email blames decisions taken by Mistry’s predecessor Ratan Tata — such as taking the group global, stretching its resources, and manufacturing the world’s cheapest car — that left the group with no choice but to write down $18 billion.
Mistry paid a quiet visit to Bombay House, the group’s headquartersinMumbai,onWednesday, avoiding television cameras and reporters waiting outside.
But soon the details of his email began to emerge, which were explosive compared to the guarded statements that followed Mistry’s surprise sacking.
The writedown, said Mistry, would be because of the losses in five companies: Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Indian Hotels, Tata Teleservices and Tata Power.
This prompted the stock exchanges — BSE and NSE — to ask the five companies about the details of their losses. And stock markets regulator Sebi began looking for a breach of corporate governance and listing norms.
The email gave the regulator and the exchanges enough cause for concern.
The ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh, which is fighting a bitter family feud, floated on Wednesday the idea of a “mahagathbandhan” or grand alliance of political parties to collectively take on the BJP in next year’s assembly polls.
The idea has the approval of party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had walked out of a similar alliance between the Janata Dal (United) of Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress in Bihar ahead of elections there in 2015.
The SP state unit chief, Shivpal Yadav, left for New Delhi on Wednesday to invite leaders of JD(U), RJD and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) for the party’s silver jubilee function on November 5 in Lucknow.
Besides the invitation for the event, he is supposed to invite the leaders for a Bihartype “mahagathbandhan” that defeated the BJP.
“Netaji [Mulayam] has authorised me to hold discussions with all Lohiawadi, Charan Singhwadi and Gandhiwadi leaders and bring secular parties on a platform to prevent communal forces from coming to power in UP,” Shivpal said.