Keshub Mahindra and the Bhopal Gas Tragedy

Union Carbide disaster refuses to let him stay in peace

Keshub Mahindra, 85, has held several important positions in the Indian corporate sector. One of those refuses to let him be in peace.

Mahindra, who is ranked 56 by the Forbes list of India’s richest, with a net worth of Rs 4,300 crore, was penciled in for the Padma Bhushan in 2002 by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government. He never got it due to protests over his association with Union Carbide.

The same association came to bite him in the back on Monday, with a two-year prison term and a fine of just over Rs 1 lakh. Mahindra, who was convicted on Monday of negligence in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, was chairman of the offending company, Union Carbide’s Indian subsidiary in 1984, when the leak took place.

His most durable position is as chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, the country’s largest utility vehicles maker. He joined the company in 1947, about two years after it was set up by his father, J C Mahindra, and uncle, K C Mahindra, and became chairman in 1963. His nephew, Anand Mahindra, now runs the company as vice-chairman and managing director.

The company is poised to become the first Indian one to launch its own range of passenger vehicles in the US later this year. The group’s information technology arm, Tech Mahindra, out-bid engineering major Larsen & Toubro and private equity company Wilbur Ross to bag Satyam Computer Services last year.

The senior Mahindra, even at this mature age, is on the board of seven organisations, including HDFC, Mahindra Ugine, Mahindra Holdings, and Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company. In the past, he has been associated with the boards of Tata Chemicals and Tata Steel. He is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry. Now he may be wishing he had never joined Union Carbide.