Mathews J Nedumpara’s letter to Ratan Tata requesting him not to squander the assets of the Tata Trusts whose beneficial owners are the millions of poor, homeless, jobless, hungry and sick.

1.5.2020

Shri Ratan Tata

Chairman

TATA Trusts/TATA Sons Ltd.

Respected Sir,

1. The Campaign for Home, of which I am the President, has instituted a few proceedings against the TATA Trusts, TATA Sons Ltd. and in the said proceedings you are also arrayed as a Respondent. Despite me holding your gracious self in the highest of esteem, awe and respect, we were constrained to institute legal proceedings, particularly a civil suit in the City Civil Court, Mumbai, because we bona fide believe that the public, the poor, the starving, the homeless, the beneficial owners of the TATA Trusts are denied what is legitimately due to them and as a necessary corollary thereof, the legal owners of the trusts, namely, trustees including your gracious self, have failed to discharge the legal and equitable obligations.

2. The common man of this country and anyone who could come across the unusually large number of blogs, write-ups, eulogizing your gracious self as the synonym of charity and philanthropy, believe that the TATA Trusts and the TATA Sons are the private property of your kind self. Very few, even among the informed citizenry know that your good self’s share is just one percent and that the TATA Sons Limited, a 10-lakh crore business empire, belongs to the homeless, the weak, meek, starving- my fellow citizens, the beneficial owners of the trusts. When the TATA Sons took the decision to convert the 10 lakh crore conglomerate, a public limited company, to a private limited company, we felt that we should seek judicial remedies, lest the TATA empire, of which the poor, the illiterate, the homeless are the real beneficial owners, should be plundered after your lifetime. To repeat, to do so was a very painful decision for us to take, for Ratan Tata is very dear to us, to all. Our only grievance is that the affairs of TATAs are not really controlled by Ratan Tata, but by a group of people reporting to him, of which, though some are noble men and women, all are not. All are not, that is the reason for our anguish.

3. I happened to hear Ratan Tata speak a few days before about the plight of the slum dwellers, now faced with the dreaded corona pandemic. Almost 65% of the population of Bombay live in slums and/or dilapidated, matchbox-like apartments, in dirt, without even a toilet, water supply, in unthinkably inhuman conditions. Bombay has the largest extent of vacant lands. The island city itself has got more than 15000 hectares of salt pans. No other city has so much open and available land for providing housing for the poor. The solution is simple. Allow one-third of the vacant lands to be utilized for commercial purpose, with the money so generated, a decent home could be built for every homeless man in the city, utilizing one-third of the vacant land. Of the remaining, one-third could be converted into botanical gardens where trees which can grow up to 200 ft can be planted. With the thousands of crores of rupees available by utilizing one-third of the vacant land for development, highways and high-speed metros could be built, so too, world-class water treatment plants which would ensure that not even a drop of untreated water is discharged to the sea. It is often said, solution to congestion is to allow the city to grow vertical.

4. Unlike your gracious self, an icon, I am nobody. Because of my humble and insignificant position, my efforts will have very little yield. On the contrary, if your kind self will take the leadership of the campaign for a home for every homeless man and the millions who live in slums and matchbox-like apartments, our dreams will become a reality. I am sure you will no longer allow the likes of Sivshankaran to plunder the properties of the TATA Sons Ltd. of which the de facto beneficial owners are the homeless and the starving poor, but will employ the monies of TATA Sons for the benefit of the poor.

With most respectful regards,

Yours Sincerely,

(ADV. MATHEWS J NEDUMPARA)