This story is from September 26, 2021

Was the 800 really Sanjay’s baby?

Was the 800 really Sanjay’s baby?
India had been making its own cars for a few years when the government woke up to the need for a cheaper ‘people’s car’ in the 1950s. In 1959, a committee described such a car as a “desirable necessity”. A year later, another committee seconded it.
The idea remained on paper for a decade until the government invited private companies to apply for a licence to make a small car.
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There were 18 applicants, including Telco, which is now Tata Motors. None impressed the government as much as Maruti, the fledgling company of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s son Sanjay.
Reports from the early 70s say Sanjay Gandhi had trained with Rolls Royce for three years, and on returning home he had started tinkering in a rented garage near Roshanara Bagh in Old Delhi. However, years later, Rolls Royce said he had only earned an Ordinary National Certificate in mechanical engineering – “a relatively minor qualification”.
Qualified he may not have been, but 20-something Sanjay promptly got 297 acres in Gurgaon at “a little under Rs 12,000 per acre” to start his Maruti factory. The plan was to make a completely indigenous car that cost about Rs 8,000 apiece. In May 1975 – close to its ‘launch’ – the exshowroom price was set at Rs 16,500. On road in Haryana, it would have cost Rs 21,000 – still Rs 5,000-10,000 cheaper than the existing models.
But the day when Sanjay’s Maruti would grace showrooms never came. In May 1975, he claimed he would start production with 12-20 units a month, and take it up to 200 a day in four years. Actual production till March 31, 1976 was just 21 units. That was all they ever made. In June 1975, his mother imposed Emergency and Sanjay jumped into politics, although his role as Maruti MD continued to pay him a then-princely Rs 4,000 monthly salary.

Indira Gandhi lost the 1977 election, and in 1978, a court ordered the winding up of Maruti. This household name would have lapsed then, but in 1980 Indira returned to office. Sanjay died in a plane crash in June, and soon after, Government of India adopted Maruti through the Maruti Limited (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act that came into force on October 13, 1980.
Three years passed before the first Maruti 800, made in collaboration with Suzuki of Japan, rolled out. Barring the badge on its rump it had nothing in common with Sanjay’s car.
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