Nirmala Sitharaman, Rahul Gandhi spar over Tata leadership dispute: ‘Stop politicising every issue’

The exchange came amid a dispute over the leadership of Tata Sons and whether it should be listed on the stock exchanges.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman sparred on X on Wednesday, with the former claiming the Tata group was being “criminally destroyed” and the latter saying Gandhi should “stop politicising every issue.”

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman questioned whether Rahul Gandhi was trying to incite business leaders to join him in spreading “distrust & toxicity”. (PTI)

The exchange came amid a dispute over the leadership of Tata Sons, the salt-to-software conglomerate’s holding company, and whether it should be listed on the stock exchanges. Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata has challenged the validity of a 17 September board resolution reappointing N. Chandrasekaran as chairman of Tata Sons. Tata Trusts, which owns 65.9% of Tata Sons, has also opposed a public listing of the holding company.

“Tata is being criminally destroyed, and no business leader dares say a word. How long will you stay silent? Until they own you? Indian business is not Modi and Shah’s plaything. You lack courage. We don’t. We will ensure justice for these crimes,” Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said in his first post on the issue on Wednesday morning.

Sitharaman accuses Gandhi of politicising commercial matters

“Being the LoP, I suggest you refrain from politicising every issue. Also, casually labelling commercial and legal matters as criminal is unacceptable,” Sitharaman posted in response to Gandhi. She said the Congress had stifled Indian entrepreneurs under the “Licence-Quota Raj”, while the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi values industry as job creators and drivers of growth. She said its policies are tailored to enable enterprise, support industry and encourage investment.

Sitharaman questioned whether Gandhi was trying to incite business leaders to join him in spreading “distrust & toxicity”. She said parties, governments and institutions share an equal responsibility to support industry, farmers and youth, and urged him to engage constructively.

Sitharaman also accused Gandhi, his party and its former prime ministers of demeaning the judiciary, and asked him to “refrain from seeing ghosts everywhere.”

Rahul counters Sitharaman

Gandhi countered with another post in the evening, again referencing the Tata group and numbering the points he was trying to make. “Which legal and commercial matter required Tata Trusts and Tata Sons to be hosted at Amit Shah’s residence,” he asked.

Gandhi’s reference was to a meeting involving Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata, Tata Sons chairman Chandrasekaran and other trustees with home minister Amit Shah and Sitharaman at Shah’s residence on 7 October last year.

Neither the government nor Tata Sons and Tata Trusts issued a statement on the meeting.

As his second point, he asked, without naming anyone: “When is crony number 1 going to appear in the game and which pieces of Tata is he going to get?”

“Finally, all India’s businesses except 3-4 of your cronies already hate all of you and don’t need any incitement,” he added.