From losing Air India to nationalisation to buying it back off the government’s hand in bad shape, Tata has had a complicated relationship with the Indian state. When Ratan Tata’s dream car Nano hit a hurdle in West Bengal, it was Narendra Modi as Gujarat CM who invited him to set up a plant in Sanand. Although the project eventually failed, it set the tone for a relationship that saw Ratan Tata hail Gujarat as investor friendly boosting Modi’s prospects for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. But now Tata is the latest to be caught in the crossfire between Maharashtra’s government and opposition, over losing megaprojects to Gujarat.
Gadkari’s offer before the debacle
As another tall BJP leader from Maharashtra apart from deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, Gadkari had written to Tata Sons, inviting the firm to invest in IT, steel, aviation and auto industries in his constituency Nagpur. Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran has also responded to this offer positively by expressing interest in Nagpur, and said that the firm will be in touch with the Vidharbha Economic Development Council. Gadkari had written the letter on October 7, introducing the VEDC as a thinktank which is keen on meeting and working with Tata’s representatives.
Not the first in the crosshairs
The road transport minister’s letter was revealed after Tata’s move to manufacture transport aircrafts with Airbus in Gujarat, triggered a political blame-game in Maharashtra. The BJP-led state government had already been slammed for losing Vedanta-Foxconn’s semiconductor project to Gujarat. Amid the storm, Vedanta had also later promised to set up an iPhone manufacturing hub in Maharashtra, a lot like how Tata has expressed interest in Nagpur.
Blaming the role of the Narendra Modi-led central government in passing projects to Gujarat, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena has attacked CM Eknath Shinde for Maharashtra’s loss. The Shinde-Fadnavis combine on the other hand has blamed the MVA for frailing to woo Tata-Airbus and Vedanta due to an unfavourable investment climate. Aditya Thackeray has even gone ahead to demand that the government should reveal the identity of the Tata official who didn’t consider Maharashtra suitable for the project.
