Tata’s return tarnishes aura of India’s legendary dynasty

Cheap Nono: Ratan Tata with the US2,500 Tata Nano car with an ultracheap price tag that suddenly brought car ownership into the reach of tens of millions of people across the world. – AP

MUMBAI: It is, said a bewildered employee of India’s biggest company, very “un-Tata-like.”

The dynastic business that built a reputation over more than a century for discretion, integrity and fair-dealing has sunk into a public spat of allegations and name-calling. Its directors trade barbs. Its share price is tumbling. And on Friday, executives were jostled in the street while security staff engaged in an unseemly brawl outside Bombay House, the group’s revered headquarters.