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THE JOURNEY
67
Bakhle on the telephone that the decision was a big mistake. He said it was the committee's decision and since he knew the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra, the Chief Minister could be influenced to give a decision in favour of the mills. I told him it would not happen as Mr. Chavan was a politician first. Anyway, since the committee had already sought arbitration, I could do nothing about it.
As I had expected, Chavan held 2-3 meetings, obviously as a formality, and awarded Rs. 10.75 crore as bonus. When I met him, I said, "Sir, why didn't you give the remaining Rs. 25 lakh as well? Why did you displease the union by holding something back?" I conveyed to him frankly that his decision was not at all fair. He appreciated my frankness, but could not undo the damage he had already done. But, we became good friends after that meeting. The episode, however, disappointed me and I resigned as Chairman of the Mill Owners' Association owning moral responsibility for the unjust deal.
Indian Merchants Chamber
At the instance of Babubhai Chinai, I joined the Committee of the Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC). Later he started pressing me on taking the Presidentship, but I consistently refused. However, in 1968 I was elected the President after my Vice Presidentship while Rusi Cooper was the President. Again, in 1985 when the elected President Ashok Birla refused to take office, I was approached by Pratapsingh Mathuradas and Pravinchandra Gandhi to take over the Presidentship which I reluctantly agreed. At this time Jaswant Thacker was the Vice President. The really interesting thing that happened was the arrest of S.L. Kirloskar at midnight for alleged Exchange Control violations, during V.P. Singh's government. None of the other Chambers including the Apex Chambers protested against such a midnight arrest of a highly respected industrialist. I took up the matter in the Committee Meeting and IMC strongly protested against this action on the part of the government. Later, during the year, I met the Ambassador of China on a cursory visit to Delhi and he suggested that IMC take a delegation to China. This the Committee approved.
Having a little inflation is like being a little pregnant - Dian Cohen
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