Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 12
Veteran industrialist Rahul Bajaj, whose surname was synonymous with two-wheelers, breathed his last on Saturday. Known for being outspoken and fearless regardless of the regime, the 83-year-old industrialist had hung up his boots last year as Bajaj Auto chairman and was appointed chairman emeritus for five years.
Frank & fearless
Outspoken and fearless, veteran industrialist Bajaj was never afraid of expressing his views on government policies, regardless of the regime
Even in his last address to shareholders last June, the Harvard Business School alumnus did not pull his punches. Warning the governments against any more lockdowns, Bajaj had said such a move might not check the spread of virus, but would surely hit employment and cripple the economy.
“Hamara Bajaj” and “You just can’t beat a Bajaj” were his company’s all-time famous tag lines, which resonated with aspirations of the Indian middle class, as he revived the Bajaj Group after the early death of his father in 1972.
The conferment of Padma Bhushan on Bajaj was yet another recognition of his family’s contribution to nation building. His father Kamalnayan Bajaj was elected MP from Wardha thrice, consolidating his association with Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram in Sevagram started by Bajaj’s grandfather Jamnalal Bajaj.
The latter founded the Bajaj Group in 1926 and was close to the British. But inspired by Gandhi, he renounced the colonial title of “Rai Bahadur” and moved his family to Sevagram ashram.
It was perhaps this lineage that had helped Bajaj get away with his outspokenness. In December 2019, after India’s GDP growth slipped to its worst in over six years, Bajaj had said people in the country were afraid of criticising the Modi government.
He was unsparing of the UPA government as well.
“Instead of focusing on highways, power, rail, ports and IT networks, we steadily raised the nation’s fiscal deficit to finance consumption-based subsidies and handouts,” he had said.
President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in condoling his death.
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