March 19, 2001

Shooting the messenger
One of the strangest victims of the BSE crisis is A A Tirodkar, finance director & secretary. Tirodkar, who is one of the senior most executives of the stock exchange, is accused of leaking crucial tapes containing Anand Rathi’s conversation with the BSE surveillance officials to the media. Tirodkar, say sources close to him, took charge of the tapes only after the BSE office bearers had claimed to SEBI that there was no such conversation between the president and the surveillance team. His intention was to protect the tapes and ensure that they did not vanish. However, in trying to do his bit for the exchange, Tirodkar seems to have placed his trust in a former BSE president, who promptly leaked the information to a journalist.

Amusingly, the letter written by executive director A N Joshi to Tirodkar says that the ‘leakage’ of sensitive information from the surveillance department has ‘caused serious damage to the image of the stock exchange and also eroded the integrity of the entire capital market.’ Joshi seems so influenced by the brokers’ way of thinking that he is confused about who has really eroded the BSE’s reputation and integrity. To him, Anand Rathi’s ‘crime’ in accessing surveillance data is far less serious than Tirodkar’s alleged ‘crime’ of reporting/leaking it.
The regulator thinks otherwise.

Whose influence?
One faction of the BSE believes that Tirodkar’s suspension was not even A N Joshi’s decision. Ever since he was appointed the executive director, he has remained silently in the background and carried out the president’s wishes. This time too, in writing the March 13 letter, Joshi was obeying the BSE president — not Anand Rathi, but President-for-a-day-and-half Deena Mehta. We learn that Joshi feels beholden to Ms Mehta and could not turn down her demand to suspend Tirodkar, and to appoint a ‘high power management committee’ to go into the ‘alleged omissions and commissions’ that occurred under him. But what about SEBI and the Finance Ministry? Having correctly initiated harsh action against the BSE broker directors, they would look a little foolish if they permitted BSE to shoot the messenger. After all, it takes a lot of courage for employees to squeal against management, and punishing Tirodkar, who is loyal and close-mouthed sends the wrong signals down the line.

Who is favourite?
In a recent television interview, former BSE president M G Damani alleged that SEBI has always been anti-BSE and has worked against the exchange. Given Damani’s grave demeanour, those who do not know the facts, are bound to melt with sympathy for the BSE’s plight. Take a look at these facts: Some of the BSE’s high profile visitors in the last year included — US President Bill Clinton, the Prime Minister of India, the Finance Minister (thrice), Pramod Mahajan (at least thrice), the Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh (at least four times) and sundry other biggies. Naturally, the entire SEBI top brass was always in attendance. On the other hand, the SEBI chairman visited the NSE — India’s largest stock exchange — for the first time a couple of months ago; the politicians have yet to discover it. Draw your own conclusions about which is the more favoured exchange.

Ratnakar & Gelli
Now that the live-wire Ramesh Gelli has run into some serious trouble, it has led to inevitable comparisons with the brilliant but flawed career of the late B Ratnakar — former chairman of Canara Bank. Both made a modest beginning and clawed their way up by their wits and intelligence. Ratnakar was not only very bright himself, but had the ability to spot talent and nurture it with the right incentives. In the eighties, he gave the mammoth State Bank of India a terrific run for its money in businesses such as investment banking and fund management, the downside was that a lot of dubious issues hit the market. Gelli had an equally bright career rising from the middle rungs of Vysya Bank to head a bank as an entrepreneur. Both bankers were flawed by their desperate hurry to make it big. Fairgrowth collapsed in the wake of the securities scam, Ratnakar was later accused of foisting cowboy bankers on to the system. Gelli’s future remains to be seen.

From flyovers to Tara?
Remember how we told you that Ratikant Basu’s ambitious multi-lingual Tara channel was up for sale? After being rejected by Sony, Tara approached Star TV for a buyout — Star’s parent company NewsCorp has a small stake in Tara. Star too turned down the proposal and Tara has now approached the Construction Company V M Jog for a buyout. The approach has been made through a Marathi producer and a friendly investment banker. It will be interesting to see of Jog zooms from Expressways and controversial flyovers out to a Tara.

Updated weekly.

The author's e-mail address is: suchetadalal@yahoo.com

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