Ratan Tata planning own anti-terror machinery

FOR OWN FORCE: Ratan Tata says police were ill-equipped to handle Mumbai terror attack.

Ads by Google

ibnlive.com is on mobile now. Read news, watch videos
be a Citizen Journalist. Log on to m.ibnlive.com NOW!

Related Stories

• Ratan Tata pays tribute to slain guests, employees of Taj

• No hotel staff involved in Mumbai terror attacks: Taj

• Terror-torn Taj to get M F Husain touch afresh

Photogallery

Find us on Facebook | Join IBNLive community

Stay ahead with G-Talk Buddy | Click now!

  

New Delhi: Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata, whose group owns the Taj chain of hotels, says he is planning to set up his own anti-terror mechanism to protect his people and assets. Speaking exclusively to CNN-IBN Tata said the police force was ill-equipped to handle the Mumbai terror attack.

"You have to accept that you cannot just constantly react to something after it takes place. You have got to look at creating a deterrent and that starts with good intelligence and sustained intelligence. It starts with the ability to put into action a plan that deals – closes of the airport, everyone knows what they are supposed to do rather than think on your feet after the event. It calls for mechanisms to make that happen," says Tata.

He recounted that when the firing at the Taj Hotel took place, for a period of time there was a view that it was a gang war and the local police were to deal with it.

"In the Taj the first contingent of policemen came with three policemen. They were ill-equipped to handle them, in fact one of them got killed, the other got shot badly and one remains. The naval seals or commandos were there a couple of hours later. But we had to go through this state machinery to get it and that took a set of time. So it was just not coordinated and easily accessible," Tata says

According to Tata, the question of leadership comes from the fact that there has to be leadership in knowing what to do. "The Fire Department didn’t know what to do. The commandos came too late. The police were not equipped to engage. There didn’t seem to be means of getting reinforcements. So all in all, there was an issue of not having a single leader. "

"We have decided that we will now look at anti-terrorism or protection of our assets and our people ourselves and we will try to create a deterrent. We will not try to create heroes who will engage in the enemy but to try and find as many invisible forms of deterring this, containing them or thwarting their efforts and that’s what we are engaged in doing and we will seek external expertise to help us set it up," he adds.

While 2007 was a stellar year for the Tata Group with its flagship companies grabbing headlines for its big global acquisitions, in 2008, however, the business conglomerate's fortunes took a U-turn and the group has been plagued by setbacks.

Tata, however, remains optimistic saying the demand in the economy has not dried up and there is a need to invigorate the economy.

"There have been huge bailouts for the financial sector because it cannot be allowed to die. The rest of the economy is now left without funds and an ultra conservative and ultra risk-averse financial community. We have gone into a period where bona fide businesses do not have demands, where sentiment is negative and I think the government for the first time has to take a much, much more proactive role in providing confidence and enthusiasm to the consumers that they will in fact will see an uprising in the economy," he says.