It was Sanjay Gandhi’s dream to make the people’s car in India, when owning a car was a luxury and Hindustan Motors and Premier Automobiles dominated the market. Sanjay had applied for a licence and got land for Maruti Motors in Gurgaon, Haryana. But commercial manufacture did not take off; the company made road rollers and bus bodies. After Sanjay’s death in an air crash in 1980, Indira Gandhi made sure her son’s dream came true. She involved Rajiv Gandhi and Arun Nehru, who convinced her of the imperative of a foreign partner to roll out the project.
The story of the dream and reality is narrated from an insider’s perspective in The Maruthi Story-How A Public Sector Company Put India On Wheels by RC Bhargava with Seetha. The Maruti 800 has sold nearly three million units since it rolled out in 1983. Various other models have come out. RC Bhargava was a part and parcel of vicissitudes of the project and its expansion, and he (with journalist Seetha) explains the pushes, pulls, brushes, wounds and punitive actions encountered in his path.
Bhargava, a former IAS officer, says he would have become Cabinet Secretary, if had not quit to join Maruti. That he did makes him one of India’s foremost game changers. He played a leading role in a success story that transformed the Indian car market. Bhargava admits that public sector units never thought of marketing their product or service and if some one stuck his neck out to earn money for the organisation, that person would be penalised! If Parliamentary committees are misled by vested interests, there is no end to the malicious proceedings for even sound and principled commercial decisions.
Full report here New Indian Express
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