The Tata Group’s elaborate search process for a successor to Ratan Tata (“Consensus on internal Tata successor”, August 29) is a case of form triumphing over substance. Regardless of the months and lakhs spent on the “search” for the fittest candidate by a committee dominated by old Tata hands, employees and consultants, three out of five being from one community, the outcome was never in doubt — it is not going to be anybody except Noel Tata, son-in-law of Pallonji Mistry and half-brother to Ratan Tata. The possibility of key shareholders and CEOs of Tata companies accepting an internal candidate from another community did not arise. The search committee members may claim that they acted totally objectively without any influence from Ratan Tata or the Shapoorji Pallonji group, but the reality is the Tatas are an extended family-managed group. This committee may technically meet the norms of corporate governance but its real choice was as wide and effective as that of a core group of Congress leaders like Singh, Mukherjee, Chidambaram et al in choosing a successor to Sonia Gandhi as Congress president.
Bhaskar Sen, Kolkata
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