'I would never have...': When Ratan Tata confronted gangster who wanted to extort money from Tata Motors

An old video of Ratan Tata recounting the time he confronted a gangster who was targeting Tata Motors is doing rounds on social media.

The incident happened in the early 1980s when Tata was the chairman of Tata Sons. The gangster was trying to extort money from Tata Motors.

"Fifteen days after I became the chairman, we had a huge union eruption in Tata Motors," Ratan Tata said, "There was an outsider, a gangster, who decided there was a considerable amount of wealth in our union and wanted to take over control of that. He had about 200 followers -- disruptive, violent, and intimidating followers -- and the rest of the 4,000 people in that plant were uninterested."

The video, shared in 2015, came up again as it was posted by Columbia Business School.

Ratan Tata asserted that the company had taken its employees' union for granted at the time, therefore the workers were excited to see what the violence would get them.

Even after getting a lot of advice to do something that could please the gangster, Tata chose the other way round and decided to confront him. "The whole issue was that this guy wanted to take over the union and we wouldn't let him do so. So, we confronted him," he said. He did not blame the workers for being afraid, and he did not take the easy way out by appeasing the gangster.

The gangster, in order to assert more control, called for a strike, further leading workers at the Tata Motors facility to cease operations for fear of their safety, he claimed. Ratan Tata then personally stayed at the plant for several days to persuade staff to continue their responsibilities and production to resume.

The gangster allegedly brought people to assault 400 Tata Motors employees, according to the industrialist, and the police "were in his pockets". However, Ratan Tata's perseverance resulted in the capture of the gangster.

Tata's perseverance was key to his success in this situation. He refused to give in to the gangster's threats, and he continued to stand up for what he believed in. He also showed great courage by staying at the plant and encouraging the workers to resume their duties. "I would never have done it any other way," he said.

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