Tata Tea Controversy A Prestige Issue For Agp, Feels Industry

The tea industry feels that the issue of alleged links between the industry and militants in Assam has become a matter of prestige for the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) government.

This is a reaction to the declaration by Assam director-general of police (DGP) K Hrishikeshan that the state police is looking into the alleged deals between Williamson Magor and Goodricke Group with the extremists. 145The tea industry is being blamed unnecessarily, said the managing director of a tea major on condition of anonymity.

After the meeting between the Indian Tea Association (ITA) and Assam Chief Minister P K Mahanta, a guideline that any extortion threat should be immediately brought to the Assam DGP145s notice had been laid before the tea companies. According to highly placed officials in tea companies, the company guideline is to let the Assam government know. But ultimately it is a matter of individual management decision, they said.

The management of a company will decide how to sort the problem of militancy. If some of the companies have resorted to paying the extremists to buy peace, it is an individual matter. But this is not the normal industry scenario, they said. Denying the allegation, a highly placed official in Goodricke Group said, 145We do not take the press report seriously unless Hrishikeshan himself communicates with us.

Moreover, the company claims to have maintained a clear stand in its dealings with militants. 145When we paid ransom for one of our officials in 1991, we had published that in our balancesheet., he added.

At the time of allegations made against the Williamson Magor group of links with militants in the state, top Williamson Magor executives had said that militancy had driven the company to employ a 2000-strong security force supported by the state government

. 145Since we are already spending so much money on security arrangements, it does not make sense to spend more to buy peace with militants, executives had said. The company had also disclosed that it had received threat letters from militants which had been handed over to the army.