Minoo Shroff on His Uncle A D Shroff

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYRIs9byu8 Duration: 332.2s

Minoo Shroff (00:10): We thought democracy or freedom in life, speech, doing business, were as important as critical to democracy. He greatly admired Nehru’s idealism, his democracy, that he was sincere in what he did. But he thought that he was carried away on the wrong path, and somebody had to resist it. It’s a great pity that in those days business didn’t support, they wanted to curry favour with the government, and they could easily do it because the government didn’t know business. I know this because I started as a young man in import export business. How often you had to go there, and you had to explain to those people what was right for the country, what was right. When they thought you were sincere, they helped you with a license, but they were too small, fragmented. Some people have criticized him that he talked to private enterprise, but he was the first one to suggest that there should be conversion of loan into equity. He said, look, let there be an astroker, let there be some, because all businessmen know that’s why the code of conduct, the code of conduct of the Forum is better than most. In fact, many people, Padgaonkar and others came to give their memorial lectures when they saw our code of conduct. People thought of when he was rebuked by Krishnamurti that this is all no freedom, all enterprise, what he meant was exploitation. He said that look, we are prepared by a code of conduct, but the dishonest are supported by you. Who are the chaps who got in through the STC? Who are the chaps who got the licenses for coal mining? Who are the licenses who got for aircraft? People who had only sat in it. He was a born liberal, though born in a lower middle class family, but I suppose going to England also liberated him, not only that, I was wondering how people like R. D. Tata, Purushottamdas Thakurdas, Sarkadas, Sir Dinshaw Wacha recommended, how he got in touch with them. And they encouraged him to go to London. Dinshaw Wacha said, you should become the first covenanted Indian officer in State Bank of which he was the Governor. He was a nationalist, I don’t know how he got into the State Bank Board, but he was not that rabid, and the British government supported him, then became the president of the Indian National Congress. And so they supported him, he went there, and he came back and he was rejected. He was rejected because he was trained by American banks, Chase Bank. Now look at the British dogmatism, trained in London, London branch of Chase Bank but stayed an American bank and the British banks never took Indian training. So when he came back, the State Bank didn’t take him and you must have read in his book by J. R. D. Tata himself that later when the State Bank asked him to become a director, he said, I have no interest. It requires lot of courage for a young man, it was great. In those days, it was great honour to be a director of State Bank, other banks were very tiny. So that was built in, it was no hypo what was he gaining by? He was getting alienated even amongst his colleagues, many of his colleagues were Congress supporters, I do not mean to mention him. It was because of his tremendous courage and that he lasted in Tatas. If a foreigner told him that, oh, you criticize the government this morning and you are asking me to invest, his ready report was that, I am not against the government, against the nation. India has the best entrepreneurs and the largest market and future skills. I’m against the policies of the present government. So it was a staunch and I have heard this from many. Lord Bagri, who was the first Indian to be chairman of the London Metal Exchange, Komanko Binani, he is still a lord and he is old now. So he was sitting next to me in a plane one day going to London, and he was a great admirer of me. He said, oh, are you are you? He is my guru, mentor, and I wanted to take my collaborators. So but Mr. Shroff said that look, I mean, you will be putting them off because I will be very frank and one. No, but the collaborators want to meet somebody who can give an objective opinion. So he was on the second plane. He said, don’t talk of my public criticism. What am I criticizing? I’m not criticizing Nehru as a man criticizing his policy. I’m criticizing because he’s misguided. Otherwise, I would not have joined the Congress Planning Commission. You see that the question is, you turn around not for a political advantage. So he was steadfast too, and the code of conduct which is so beautifully drafted itself shows.