By Savita Bhave Translation Nandu Dange

equired for the deal, and money had to change hands to obtain one. Menondid not like this and was displeased with Ramesh Chougule. Vijay howeverbacked Chougule. Chougule says he probably was the only man to ever getback into Menon’s good books after he was out of favour. But Menonconvinced himself that what Chougule did was to the company’s benefit.There are several stories floating around on how the factory actuallyreopened. The end-March 87 report indicates the following: The AutoComponents Division at Kolhapur was closed down on 27th April 1986; endMarch 1987 it was still closed. In May 1986 the company had applied to theGovernment for closure. When the application was turned down, the companyapproached the banks and financial institutions for capital to rescue it. As perthe rules, the company was declared a sick unit and Rs. 500 lakh were to bearranged for revival. Negotiations were on with the labour unions. Anagreement was signed between labour and management on 9th February1987. This was signed on behalf of Management by Menon, K. K. Sreedharanand D. S. Mande. From the workers side, the signatories were R. S. Patil, B.L. Barge and other office-bearers, representing both unions. The report alsosays that after the closure application was rejected by the Government inOctober ‘86, a writ petition was filed on behalf of the company in the HighCourt, and is yet to come up for hearing. But since the negotiations enteredinto by both unions were successful and a compromise was agreed upon atthe end of 1986, this agreement was signed.The main points of the agreement: (1) Maintenance personnel will be called inand the factory reopened before 1st March 87, and the rest of the workers willbe recalled by 15th March. (2) No worker will be retrenched. However, only667 workers will be taken on initially, and the remaining 352 will be deemed tobe on leave without pay. (3) NITIE will be assigned the task of studying thequestion of productivity and recommending improvements. (4) Therecommendations of NITIE will be binding on both sides. Accordingly banksand financial institutions released the prescribed funds, and the factory finallyreopened in the middle of October 1987. The Report naturally included amessage of profound grief at the demise of K. K. Sreedharan.Abhay Nevagi says that the banks and financial institutions had in themeanwhile put it up to the BIFR that Menon should file for bankruptcy. Menonwas naturally outraged. He remarked that these institutions looked upon itpurely as a trade-off and had no intentions of reconstruction. Given the timeand freedom, he offered, he could put the company back on its feet byhimself.On the day fixed for the BIFR hearings, Menon was in Delhi. He caught thefirst available flight back, and once it was decided that the factory was to bereopened, he threw himself into the job and never looked back. Usually hewould stay at the 5-star Blue Diamond Hotel when in Pune, but in hard timeshe resorted to staying at Hotel Sheetal on Fergusson College road. Even afterhe was operated on, he resorted to travel by bus and then even by autorickshaw to reach his destination. Work to him was important - how hetravelled to his destination and where he stayed was secondary. When they