Jairam Ramesh recalls contribution of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi as Maruti 800 marks 40 years

Jairam Ramesh. Pic/PTI

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday recalled the launch of "people's car" Maruti 800 40 years ago, and said Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi played a quiet but hugely effective role in the background.

Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh also said that while celebrating Maruti-Suzuki and its multiple impacts, let us also pause and worry a bit from the inequality and climate change point of view that more than 50 per cent of car sales are now of SUVs.

In a post on X, Jairam Ramesh said, "Today 40 years ago, the consumer revolution overtook India and its engineering industry got transformed. The Maruti 800, the people's car was launched and the nation recalls Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, who played a quiet but hugely effective role in the background."

It is also important to recall O Suzuki and V Krishnamurthy who made the landmark Suzuki-Maruti joint venture possible, he noted.

Krishnamurthy had earlier built BHEL and was to later turn around SAIL, Ramesh pointed out.

"One of the greatest public sector managers India has produced. He (Krishnamurthy) offered me a job on three different occasions but my sights, rightly or wrongly, were elsewhere. He was a most compelling personality," Ramesh said.

"Forty years later, while we celebrate Maruti-Suzuki (that is now only Suzuki) and its multiple impacts, let us also pause and worry a bit from the inequality and climate change point of view that more than 50 per cent of car sales are now of SUVs," he said.

December 14, 1983 marked the birth of the iconic Maruti 800 that has remained one of the most successful cars India has ever seen.

Meanwhile, the Congress on Wednesday demanded answers from the government and a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah in both houses of Parliament on the "serious security breach" in Lok Sabha, saying does the incident "not prove that necessary precautions were not taken".

"INDIA parties walked out of the Rajya Sabha this afternoon on the issue of the extraordinary events in the Lok Sabha today and the refusal of the Home Minister to make a statement on the matter, especially after such a huge breach of security on the very same day Parliament was attacked 22 years ago," AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.

In another post, he said, "The Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha kept accusing INDIA parties of 'politicising' the shocking and apalling breach of security WITHIN the Lok Sabha today."

"He had no answers to serious questions being raised on how such a breach could take place in a building heralded by the PM for its technological marvels, and how the intruders had come as visitors thanks to a high-profile sitting BJP MP from Karnataka."

In an apparent swipe at the prime minister, the Congress put out a post showing the picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP MP Pratap Simha saying, "Infiltration in Parliament on the pass of BJP MP Pratap Simha".

"'Na hi wahan koi ghus aaya hai, na hi wahan kisi ne kisi ko ghusaya hai' (Neither has anyone entered there, nor has anyone allowed anyone to enter there)," the caption on the picture said in an apparent reference to prime minister's words during an all-party meet after Chinese intrusions on the border in Eastern Ladakh.

(With inputs from Agencies)