In a bid to reach out to his father with whom he has a long running feud, Managing Director of Chettinad Cement and group head, M A M R Muthiah today said he is ready to resolve differences with his octogenarian father M A M Ramaswamy.
"I am ready to surrender to him and listen to him if his ideas are constructive... If his ideas are destructive I cannot listen, will you listenIJ" Muthiah said. The offer of Muthiah, alias Ayyappan, the adopted son of Ramaswamy, a noted industrialist and former MP, comes days after an ugly episode at the Chettinad House, the latest in a series of bickerings between the father and adopted son duo.
Fourteen alleged henchmen of an assistant of Ramaswamy were arrested for locking a room of Muthiah at the palace, a sprawling 40,000 square feet heritage house at the upscale MRC Nagar here on May 24. "I want a solution and I want to resolve differences with my father. I believe it will happen, we will wait and it will happen," he said.
"He (Ramaswamy) should understand the reality. He is 86 year old and on a wheel-chair. He cannot run the business or manage things. He needs to understand that management cannot be with him now at his (advanced) age," he said at a hurriedly convened press meet. last August, shareholders did not re-elect Ramaswamy as chairman of Chettinad Cements and instead offered him the position of Chairman Emeritus which he declined.
Stating that his father "has some anger" against him, Muthiah said this has to go in the first place. On the grouse against him, he said "my father's major complaint is that I should follow his instructions..If it is right we can follow and if it is wrong can we followIJ" he asked. "Also, whether such instructions comes from him or from those around him with vested intersts (has to be seen), I cannot follow (such instructions from vested interests)," he said.
"Company will have to be shut if I do whatever he wants me to do," he said answering another question. Muthiah said he had built the company from Rs 60 crore to Rs 4,000 crore market capital in the last 15 years. "I will not allow anybody to destruct the company." Forty five-year-old Muthiah who lives in Singapore holds a 70 per cent stake in Chettinad Cements, his father has 22 per cent and the rest is by public.
He said his health was at stake and growth had stopped for the last two years. "I am unable to concentrate." One aspect of the fundamental issue, he said, was being an adopted son. "whatever I do is misconstrued as wrong." Muthiah, then called Ayyappan, was adopted in 1995 by Ramaswamy and his late wife Sigappi Aachi. Muthiah declined to name the 'vested interests' but said there are five to seven persons, both relatives and employees who have been around him for the past about 15-20 years.
Such "vested interests and third parties," were giving "wrong advice" to thrust their agenda on Ramaswamy,he alleged. "They want to take control of the company and you know what happened in the Annual General Meeting last year. Vested interests have poisoned (the mind) of my father," he said. A day ahead of the AGM in August 2014, CBI had arrested Registrar of Companies, M Manu Neethi Cholan, here on charges of allegedly taking a Rs 10 lakh bribe from Ramaswamy.
The central agency had then said that Ramaswamy had allegedly given the bribe to negate some decisions that were to be taken at the AGM of Chettinad Cements in his favour. Muthiah recalled his failed attempts for a patch up earlier. "I had even apologised if I had done anything unintentionally. But my father says better fall in my way or no way for you, you can get out of this place."
To a question, he opined that his father should not interfere in the company management due to old age. "However he wants to be in the management till his lifetime." He alleged that Ramaswamy was trying to exert pressure on him through several ways, including psychological, emotional and through the family so that he would toe his line.
“He is not in a mood to listen, the only thing he wants is to give me trouble." On the charge he was not providing money to his father, he asked, "when he can donate Rs.10,000 crore to a trust, why should I give him money..When he is donating so much money why should I pay him even one rupee. We are not on talking terms."
"I have not taken any wrong step and the guiding factor has always been the interests of the Chettinad family and the group and intests of thousands of families whose livelihood is dependent on the group." The Chettinad Group has several companies,including the flagship Chettinad Cements, besides diversified interests in power, health care, logistics,coal terminals and construction.