By Indian standards, ten years is a pretty short time to finally bury some ghosts: at least in the legal if not political or psychological way. A two judge bench of the Supreme Court has overturned a Kolkata High Court order that had allowed the acquisition of almost 1000 acres of land near Singur for the Nano car plant by Tata Motors. Not only has the Supreme Court deemed the land acquisition illegal, it has ordered the West Bengal government to complete the process of returning the land to original owners of Singur within 12 weeks. It has also decreed that the farmers who were paid compensation for the Nano factory need not return any amount as they have suffered without land for 10 years. In political terms, it is yet another slap for the Left Front that ruled Bengal for almost 34 years. It is also a vindication for Bengal chief minister Mamata Bannerjee who had spearheaded an agitation against the Tata Motors Nano plant.
But there is a more interesting implication. It is about the so called glittering legacy left behind by Ratan Tata who handed over the reins of the Tata group to Cyrus Mistry some years back. In hindsight, Ratan Tata appears like a God who sometimes, if not often, failed. And it also shows that his grandiose and theatrical statements from that era were perhaps meant for the gallery. Many remember his belligerent statement during a TV interview about the Singur controversy about how he will not budge even if someone had pointed a gun at his head. Then, Ratan Tata was the darling not just of the pink papers but also of almost the entire global media. His dream Nano car, which was supposed to retail at a jaw dropping Rs 1 lakh per unit had tantalized the world. Many compared him and Nano with Henry Ford and The T model that revolutionized the auto industry. Breathless analysts wondered how soon Nano factories could pop up across the world to make and sell more than 1 million cars a year to begin with. Of course, having acquired Jaguar Land Rover in the meanwhile, Tata Motors and Ratan Tata were touted as the future emperors of the global auto industry.
Real life is different than dreams. The Nano has never lived up to the hype generated around it. Despite everything going for it, the Nano has remained a very minor player in the auto sweepstakes. Forget the one million mark, it has struggled to even cross the 1 lakh mark after years of launch, repositioning, rebranding and tons of sleek advertising aimed at the youth. By any objective yardstick, the Nano has been a spectacular failure. Not just that, in the Indian auto market, Tata Motors has been relegated to an also ran position despite Herculean efforts. It struggles in the number five or six position depending on monthly sales. Even globally, a slowdown in China and other major economies of the world have meant that Jaguar Land Rover is no longer the great acquisition it was supposed to be.
Sure, it would be unfair to blame Ratan Tata alone for all this. But his legacy does deserve a second look. Even before the hype around Nano and Jaguar Land Rover, Ratan Tata had created waves when Tata Steel had acquired another British company Corus. This had rivaled the takeover of Arcelor by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal. But Corus faces a very bleak future,mid there is one at all. Yet another Ratan Tata foray preceded Corus and Jaguar Land Rover. It was into the Indian telecom market. A joint venture with the Japanese giant DoCoMo was supposed to propel Tatas into a leadership position. But that deal is a mess and international arbitration courts have ordered the Tatas to pay billions of dollars in damages to DoCoMo.
More qualified analysts will probably figure out if Ratan Tata has been a victim of sheer bad luck or later day hubris. But there can be no doubt that his legacy does appear a tad tarnished at the moment. And he can't blame Mamata Bannerjee for that.
