The Tata Tea / ULFA Story

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Tata Tea's Deals with the Ulfa and the Government Contd...

Tata Tea not only kept Sehgal fully informed, but also followed his instructions.⁶ Sehgal advised the company never to pay cash, never to give equipment that could have military use, to pursue a dialogue till the very end, and to always keep him informed. Meanwhile, Tata Tea and ULFA decided to continue the talks at a meeting in Bangkok in early 1996. Dogra, Bolin and a few other company officials attended this meeting, where the ULFA reitereated its demand for either money or the walkie-talkies. Tata Tea refused to budge from its stand and offered to launch a medical scheme for the people of Assam, under which the needy people of the state could get medical treatment in specialist hospitals outside the state at Tata Tea's cost.

The ULFA accepted this offer and Tata Tea launched the medical scheme within a few months. Things seemed to be going smoothly for the company till the arrest of Pranati, who was later brought to Guwahati and produced before a court. During the interrogation by the Assam police and central intelligence officers, Pranati reportedly provided information about ULFA as well as Tata Tea's links with the organisation. This prompted the Assam DGP K Hrishikeshan (Hrishikeshan) to level charges against Tata Tea and the Assam police began interrogating Tata Tea's top executives including Krishna Kumar and Executive Director S M Kidwai (Kidwai) and many other Tata Tea officials. Tata Tea claimed that ULFA had availed of the service without its knowledge and that Pranati was just one of the cases referred for treatment for a serious blood disorder during her pregnancy. ULFA sources too said that at no point of time had Tata Tea been told about Pranati's ULFA links. However, there was a flaw in the company's defense.

Tata Tea's scheme provided only for treatment of cancer, heart and eye ailments in the BM Birla Hospital at Calcutta, Tata Memorial Hospital at Bombay, and Shankar Netralaya at Madras respectively. Pranati's treatement at the Jaslok hospital was outside the scope of the scheme and therefore came under scrutiny. Moreover, the fact that senior official like Gogoi had accompanied Pranati weakened the company's stand.

In the last week of September 1997, Tata Tea released advertisements, wherein the company admitted to having been forced to attend the Bangkok meeting with ULFA. The Assam government then accused Tata Tea of having a tacit understanding with the ULFA and the NDFB. The government said that it 'failed to understand how any company could be forced to meet the militants outside India unless there was some tacit understanding.'

A few days later, Tata Tea revealed the IB's role in the whole affair, taking everyone concerned by surprise. The Tatas claimed that all their meetings with the militants had been approved by the intelligence agencies of the central government. The company also said that the controversial meetings with militants were mostly organized by the intelligence agencies themselves, partly to negotiate for the release of their senior executive, and also to ensure the safety of the thousands of families working in the tea gardens.

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6] Shortly afterwards, Sehgal was forced to retire from service, after he was alleged of having links with the US intelligenc agency CIA. Another intelligence official, Arun Bhagat, took his place.