Rahul Bajaj: “Tough on the outside, soft inside”

Rajiv Bajaj with his family

Rajiv Bajaj may have created a public perception of being at odds with father Rahul Bajaj, but in an interview given to this author in Outlook Business in August 2021, he dispelled that myth among others.

In the interview, he revealed a deeply caring father, who showed up to soothe every anguish of his family. Rajiv spoke of a man who could be tough as a businessman and tenderhearted as a father.

Rajiv, who is known to speak his mind like his father and not excuse bad behaviour even if it is from a parent, said that he could make transformative changes at Bajaj Auto only because of his father (and not despite his father).

He spoke of a father who lived by his principles, even if it made life harder. “Both my parents were from Mumbai and grew up there. But he decided to live in Akurdi (Pune) because he did not want to be an absentee landlord,” he said, adding, “It wasn’t easy.”

As a child, Rajiv saw his father leading a hectic life, running a company at a time when the Indian business scene was fraught with labour problems. But Rajiv also saw that Rahul was there for his family when it mattered.

“Dad wasn’t there often but he was there when he had to be there,” said Rajiv, “like when our first dog Bunty, a Golden Retriever fell sick and was passing blood.”

Rahul’s wife Rupa had called and asked him to take Bunty to the vet. “Dad was under tremendous pressure because of the labour issue those days, but he came immediately. We had to stand and wait in the little clinic for two hours and dad as there. He waited the whole time along with the rest of us,” he said.

When the younger son Sanjiv had a minor bike accident, Rahul didn’t waste a minute to be by his side. “Sanjiv fell off an M50 and began throwing up,” Rajiv remembered. “We had been chasing each other around in the colony on the bike when Sanjiv fell off and had a concussion. Mom called up dad and he was there in a minute.”

“We were closer to mom, but dad was very much there,” said Rajiv.

The relationship between Rahul and Rajiv became more strained when they began working together. The younger Bajaj was insistent that things be done differently from what they had been until then.

“The dissonance is easy for the child and I understand that now with the shoe on the other foot,” said Rajiv. Rajiv now has a son Rishabh.

At Rahul and Rupa’s 50^th wedding anniversary, Rupa called Rajiv to the stage and asked him to say a few words. Rajiv said something in jest that had everyone rolling on the floor. “I said that if I said something about her I will choke and if I said anything about my dad he would choke me!,” Rajiv recalled in the interview, laughingly.

Despite the differences in their working styles, Rajiv had several experiences that left him in awe of his father. One was when there was a labour strike in the early 2000s that nearly brought down the shutters on the company.

Rahul and Rajiv had to visit the founder of Shiv Sena, the late Bal Thackeray, for a mediation. Thackeray, Rajiv said, had great regard for the Bajaj family because when the politician was starting out in Maximum City as a “nobody”, he had the patronage of Ramkrishna Bajaj who liked Thackeray’s cartoons.

“It was very clear that he (Thackeray) was not going to be rough with us (about the labour dispute). At the same time, it was his union and he was obviously the big boss in the room that day, not dad. It was his call to take. It was good training for me, to see the dynamics playing out, because I had asked myself what I would have done in such a situation,” said Rajiv.

Rajiv was adamant about a few things. “My people and my supervisors had been beaten up and there had been violence. So, people had to lose their jobs. There was one particularly troublesome character and, at the time, my attitude, as my younger self, was that he should be sacked. He should be punished. I insisted that we should not go back on that,” he recalled.

Rahul was caught between a son who would not relent on the sacking and union leaders who would not allow that. The younger Bajaj was watching closely how the situation would be handled.

“Dad was clever. He briefed Thackeray about what had happened and then handed over a set of keys to him, saying, ‘These are the keys to the gate, and I am giving it to you. You manage the company now because I can’t do it. I am caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. My son won’t relent and your fellows won’t listen. So, chaavi aap rak lo,” remembered Rajiv, adding that his father had played it astutely.

“Thackeray changed the subject by saying, ‘Aap stress mat lo, beer lenge kya?’ I was quite surprised since it was the middle of the day! Dad generally doesn’t drink at all, certainly not during the day. He said no. To that, Thackeray said, ‘Aap beer nahi peete? Isliye aapko life mein itna tension hain, phir health problem bhi hoga baad mein. Beer peena jaruri hai, sab problems solve ho jaate hain.’ He lightened the mood.”

Thackeray then asked the labour leaders who were present in the room, some of whom went on to become ministers, if the worker had really done what Rajiv had accused him of. If the worker had really beaten up another man and was a repeat offender. The leaders replied in the affirmative and Thackeray was quick with his verdict.

“He said, ‘Kadun taaka tyala’. Off with his head. They were all shocked. This decisiveness, I liked. It suited me, of course. But, even otherwise. Today’s politicians are not decisive and that is why we have ended up with some of the people that we have,” said Rajiv.

Thackeray asked the Bajajs to give the sacked man an autorickshaw free of cost. This was done so that the man could start earning from the very next day and so that his family would not suffer.

Rajiv said that the experience was a big learning for him. The way it was handled was so “counterintuitive, so unusual”.

“The way dad made his case clear with absolute respect, in front of a fellow who everybody feared… It was remarkable… When we came out of the house, people were garlanding dad’s car, offering ladoos and bursting crackers. The great Indian tamasha!,” he said.

Like there were moments when Rahul surprised Rajiv with his strength, there were moments when he surprised his son with his vulnerability.

Rajiv recalled the time his mother underwent a bypass surgery in Cleveland. “She was strong and went into it as if she was going to get her nails clipped but we were all scared,” recalled Rajiv.

“Dad is one of those people who are tough on the outside but soft inside. So, while he kept his composure, he was shattered. She recovered well but dad had been internalising an enormous amount of stress over the seven months that led up to the procedure.”

After Rupa was moved out of the postoperative ICU and into a regular room, Rajiv was readying to leave. He hugged her goodbye and saw his father standing away. This was in 2004, as Rajiv recalled, “the business-related father-son war was at its peak”.

“I felt I should say goodbye to him as well and not just walk away because it was not like we were not talking to each other at all. I turned around to tell him goodbye, and he came and hugged me. He kept his head on my shoulder and cried and cried. He is a little shorter than I am, so his head was on my shoulder the whole time. Sometimes, they say you see the parent as a child. That’s when I experienced it,” he said.