Sitharaman Hits Back at Rahul Gandhi Over Tata Sons Post

The Finance Minister accused the Leader of the Opposition of politicising a commercial and legal dispute and asked whether he was trying to pull business leaders into spreading distrust.

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday hit back at Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi over his claim that the Tata Group is being “criminally destroyed,” telling him to stop politicising every issue. Her response turns a boardroom dispute at India’s largest conglomerate into a direct political clash.

What Rahul Gandhi said

Earlier on Wednesday, Gandhi posted on X that the Tata Group was being criminally destroyed and that no business leader dared to speak out. He asked how long they would stay silent and whether it would be until “they own you.” He also said Indian business was not the “plaything” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, and that the Congress would “ensure justice” for these crimes. At the time, there was no immediate reaction from the government or from Tata Group.

Sitharaman’s reply

In her own X post, Sitharaman told Gandhi, as Leader of the Opposition, to refrain from politicising every issue, and said casually labelling commercial and legal matters as criminal was unacceptable. She accused him of repeatedly decrying the successes of Indian industry and entrepreneurs, and asked whether he was now trying to incite business leaders to join him in spreading distrust and toxicity.

She also turned to history, saying the Congress had smothered entrepreneurs for decades under the Licence-Quota Raj and pushed crores of Indians into poverty. By contrast, she said, the Modi government values industry as a job creator and a driver of growth, and that its policies are designed to enable enterprise and encourage investment.

Sitharaman argued that parties, leaders, governments and institutions share a responsibility to support industry, farmers and youth, and urged Gandhi to engage constructively instead of making baseless allegations for narrow political ends. Invoking the Constitution and the courts, she accused the Congress and its prime ministers of demeaning the judiciary, and closed by telling Gandhi to “refrain from seeing ghosts everywhere.”

The dispute behind the exchange

The row comes amid a bitter dispute within the Tata Group. Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata has challenged the validity of the September 17 board resolution at Tata Sons that approved a five-year extension for chairman N. Chandrasekaran, citing procedural objections and provisions of the company’s Articles of Association.

Noel Tata has also opposed a proposed stock market listing of Tata Sons, arguing that it could weaken the group’s century-old ownership structure and its philanthropic model. Tata Trusts, which holds about 66% of Tata Sons, has said a public listing could expose the holding company to short-term shareholder pressure and reduce its ability to fund long-term investments and charity. Noel has urged the company to explore alternatives within the Reserve Bank of India’s regulatory framework.

The dispute has split trustees and spilled into the Tata Sons boardroom. Parsi organisations have also reportedly written to the Prime Minister about preserving the Trusts-led ownership model.

What to watch

Neither Tata Sons nor Tata Trusts had commented on the political exchange at the time of writing, and no Congress response to Sitharaman’s post was available. The next developments are likely to come from the boardroom and the legal challenge to the September 17 resolution, and from whether either side escalates in Parliament or in public.