Raunaq Blames Cong Leaders Greed For Row With Son

Raunaq Singh, the 75-year old chairman of Raunaq Enterprises, has held a senior Congress party functionary responsible for the problems he had with his son, Onkar S Kanwar, over the control of the groups flagship company, Apollo Tyres.

Making this revelation in the India Talks programme of ABNI television channel, Singh gave a clean chit to Onkar S Kanwar, saying that he had no problem with his son per se. But one Congress leader who was unhappy with me decided to trouble me and ruined my family by creating a split between me and my son, he said.

Singh refused to name the Congress functionary, but added that, if Rajiv Gandhi were alive, there would have been no problem for me. Singh said that in 1991, a senior Congress functionary, who always used to ask money from his son, Kanwar, had suddenly upped the demand by asking for Rs 2 crore as donation for the partys election fund. Kanwar was very distressed over this demand.

 

On being told about the huge demand, Singh sought the help of former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv, according to Singh, was very helpful, and called his secretary, V George, and said: From now on, all the money coming from Raunaq Singh will come directly to me and you will keep a record of these.

But this annoyed the Congress functionary, who had been asking for the huge sum directly from Kanwar.

However, Onkar S Kanwar, when contacted by Business Standard, said he was not aware of any politician demanding any money from him.

Singhs statements in the two-part interview are significant as they highlight the nexus between Indian industrialists and political leaders while throwing light on the nature of influence politicians exercise over industrialists and the methodology adopted to collect funds

In the interview, Singh said the Congress did not regularly ask money from him. It would ask for money only at the time of election and in this regard the system initiated by former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, worked quite well. She would prepare a list of industrialists and put an amount against each name. Her treasurers would then show the list to the industrialists concerned. If the industrialists could meet the demand indicated in the list, the money would be paid to the treasurer there would be no coercion and no problem even if the amount indicated in the list was not paid by an industrialist. Rajiv Gandhi also followed the same system, Singh said.

On former Prime Minister, H D Deve Gowda, Singh said he never asked any money from him when he went to meet him to seek support for setting up a one million tonne steel plant in Karnataka.

Singh said probably his rapid growth was a cause for other industrialists jealousy and they tried to create a rift between him and his son. Defending Kanwar, he said: My son is not bad. I go to his house, he comes to my house. When asked if the scam-tainted Harshad Mehta had something to do with Apollo Tyres, Singh said: I never knew Harshad. My son was close to him.

He also said that his plan was to pass on the management of all his companies to professionals. This was one way of making sure that there are no problems, he said. Singh also talked about the direction of future reforms, pace of liberalisation and the threat from MNCs to Indian industry.

In the early nineties, Raunaq Singh and Onkar S Kanwar were engaged in an unseemly battle over Apollo Tyres. While Singh reportedly wanted his sons from his second marriage to be inducted on the companys board, Kanwar supported by professional managers opposed the move.

After several rounds of messy board-room battles, a patch-up formula was worked out in consultation with FIs .

According to the formula, Singh was divested of his executive powers while continuing to function as chairman and managing director of Apollo Tyres. Kanwar, on the other hand was made the vice-chairman and managing director of the company.