Cyrus Mistry Gave Up Family Time, Interests For Tata: Friend Supriya Sule

New Delhi: Cyrus Mistry surrendered "his entire family time and family business" after being named Chairman of the Tata Group and "it is wrong to suggest that he performed poorly" in that role, said politician Supriya Sule, who is a close friend of Mr Mistry and his wife, Rohiqa Chagla.

Mr Mistry, 48, was removed abruptly on Monday and replaced by his predecessor Ratan Tata, who will lead India's biggest conglomerate for the next four months till a permanent replacement is identified by a specially-created committee.

Mr Mistry's family firm, Shapoorji Pallonji, is a construction major and one of the largest stakeholders in the Tata Group. "Cyrus was running his own family business successfully," Ms Sule, a member of parliament from Maharashtra, told NDTV. "He tried hard to make changes to benefit the Tatas," she said, in the earliest comments from a personal associate of Mr Mistry, who has refused any remarks on the controversy.
 Different parties close to Ratan Tata including a lawyer who advised him say that the Tata board prepped for nearly a month to oust Mr Mistry and to ensure its decision could not be legally challenged. Harish Salve, a long-time advisor to the Tata Group has said that Mr Mistry's decision to sell assets acquired by Mr Tata, including a vast steel operation in the UK, did not sit well with the board of the $103 billion group.

In an email to the board that dismissed him, Mr Mistry has said that he was not allowed to defend himself and that the required procedure to remove him as Chairman was not followed. A statement from his office has said he is not considering going to court against the Tata Group "at this stage."

The Tata Group now has about $30 billion in debts.

In his email to the board, Mr Mistry has said that he was not allowed the freedom he was promised when he was installed as Chairman late in 2012. His style of doing business was in sharp contrast to Mr Tata's, who spent billions of dollars acquiring global companies like steelmaker Corus and Jaguar Land Rover.

Mr Mistry moved to sell the steel interest acquired from Corus in the UK, but the move has been stalled. Mr Salve described that decision as a major misstep, suggesting that it damaged the Tatas' reputation and commitment to investing in not a business "but an institution."