Rahul Gandhi has accused India’s business leaders of staying silent as Noel Tata challenges N Chandrasekaran’s reappointment as Tata Sons chairman, escalating a dispute over control and the conglomerate’s future.
Rahul Gandhi has accused India’s business establishment of staying silent while the Tata Group is, in his words, being “criminally destroyed”, using a social media post to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over what he described as interference in corporate affairs. The remark came as a high-stakes dispute inside one of India’s most prominent business houses continues to widen.
“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 wrote in the post.
At the centre of the row is a clash over the future of Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran. Business Today reported that Noel Tata, who chairs Tata Trusts and controls about two-thirds of Tata Sons through the trusts, wrote to the company secretary earlier this week challenging Chandrasekaran’s reappointment for another five-year term beyond February 2027. Noel Tata argued that the matter was taken up outside the scheduled agenda of the board meeting, which he said had been limited to a briefing from the nomination and remuneration committee.
The dispute first surfaced in September, when Tata Trusts said the board resolution reappointing Chandrasekaran was “legally void and without any basis” under the company’s articles of association. Tata Sons later rejected those objections and maintained that the reappointment had followed proper legal and governance procedures. Business Today also reported that Venu Srinivasan, the other Tata Trusts nominee on the Tata Sons board, sided with the majority in support of the resolution, alongside directors Anita George, Harish Manwani and Saurabh Agarwal.
The fight is unfolding against a broader backdrop of uncertainty over Tata Sons’ ownership structure and regulatory future. Business Today has reported that Noel Tata has been pressing for a solution that would keep the conglomerate unlisted, after earlier saying he hoped the Reserve Bank of India would work with the company to avoid a stock market listing. He argued in that interview that a listing would fundamentally alter how the group has been run for more than a century, underlining how the governance dispute is tied to a much larger debate over control, succession and the group’s long-term direction.
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