London, May 21: Ratan Tata has questioned Mukesh Ambani’s need to live in Antilla, the glass and steel palace which rises 173 meters above Mumbai, consists of 27 storeys and is said to cost anywhere between £630 million and £1 billion.
“It makes me wonder why someone would do that,” Tata says. “That’s what revolutions are made of,” he adds.
The implication in Tata’s comments to The Times, London, is that he cares about India’s poor.
The paper says that while Tata is wealthy, he claims not to be a billionaire. “He lives in an apartment with a sea view but, according to those who know him, he lives modestly compared with some of India’s other rich people.”
The Times depicts Tata as a man of conscience. “The widening gap between rich and poor in India worries him.”
If Mamata Banerjee were to read the article, she might have to suppress involuntary stirrings that she has more in common with Tata than either might like to admit.
Tata tells the paper: “We are doing so little about the disparity. We are allowing it to be there and wishing it away.”
It is The Times which raises the subject of Ambani’s lavish new home. Tata’s next few words might well make Ambani incandescent with rage: “The person who lives there should be concerned about what he sees around him and (asking) can he make a difference. If he’s not, then it’s sad because this country needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways of mitigating the hardship that people have.”
To which Mamata might respond: “This man is stealing my manifesto.”
He also talks of the money that the Tata group puts into social causes. “What surprises many is that we are not a corporation just driven by the bottom line, but we are able to allocate 4 or 5 per cent of our profit to social causes and to philanthropy and still are able to provide returns to our shareholders,” Tata emphasises.
In what could be construed as a dig at Ambani, Tata goes on: “Do we want to be the No. 1 corporation in size? No, we don’t. If we are, it’s wonderful, but we would like to keep on doing what we are doing, and perhaps be different, and be a corporation with a greater amount of compassion and yet the best in class.”
Tata also attacks Peter Mandelson, who was business secretary in the last Labour government. Although he maintained good relations with Brown, he is critical of Mandelson, who turned down Tata’s request for credit to invest in Jaguar.
“I said, ‘you own most of the banks, so give us access to credit because we have nowhere to turn’. And his answer was, ‘you are an Indian company. Go to the Indian banks’, which I thought was crazy. The jobs were English.”
I have pointed out earlier on a number of occasions regarding the house that Mukesh Ambani has built. I am glad that Rattan Tata has similar views.When there is so much poverty all around, the 40 billion house stands like an eye sore and as Mr. Tata rightly commented are the thoughtlessness which cause revolutions.
Compare that with the simplicity of Mr. Tata who still lives in a flat.
One cannot have but respect for Tata and disdain for Mukesh Ambani.
There is another Indian who has become an NRI.
He goes about buying castles and yachts as if that is the only purpose of life.
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