Did minister’s bribery bid stall Singapore Airlines in India?
The head of India’s Tata Group – the country’s multinational conglomerate – has caused a storm by suggesting he did not enter the airline business as he was not comfortable with the idea of paying a massive bribe to an Indian government minister.
Group chairman Ratan Tata accused the minister at the time of demanding Rs 15 crore (US$3.15m) in order to launch a joint venture with Singapore Airlines to buy Air India.
Ratan Tata’s predecessor, JRD Tata, had set up the first commercial airlines of India, Tata Airlines, in the 1930s. Later, in the 1950s, Tata Airlines was taken over by the government and turned into Air India.
Tata said he regretted that despite being a pioneer in the airline industry, the group faced enormous problems in setting up a domestic airline in collaboration with Singapore Airlines.
“We approached three prime ministers. But an individual thwarted our efforts,” the Times of India reported.
Tata added that a fellow industrialist had told him at that time, ‘You people are very stupid… you know the minister wants 15 crore; why don’t you pay it?’, but he had refused.
“I just said, ‘I want to go to bed at night knowing that I haven’t got the airline by paying for it’,†Tata said.
C.M. Ibrahim, who was union civil aviation minister in 1996-97, has demanded that Ratan Tata name the minister who sought the bribe.
In 1997, after turning down the Tata-Singapore Airlines bid, Ibrahim said, “ I am against airlines of another country coming and operating in our domestic circuit. No Western country allows a foreign airline to take over a domestic circuit.
“Even Singapore Airlines does not have foreign investment. Why should I allow Singapore Airlines into my country?â€
Ian Jarrett
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