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Raunaq Singh: A wish that remained unfulfilled

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Quite ironic that a man who built a business empire and had so much to say should breathe his last without having a minor wish fulfilled.

All Raunaq Singh, the 79-year-old former chairman of Raunaq Group, desired after having handed over the reins of his group to his son, was to have his memoirs written while he was still alive. However, it was not be. Raunaq Singh died on September 30, 2002.

Raunaq Singh was a powerful figure in corporate India. He was the former president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, the PHDCCI, and numerous other trade bodies.

It was in the mid-1980s that he began toying with the idea of having his biography written. "I want to have my memoirs written and it would be a great help if you could suggest someone who could do it for me," he told this correspondent in 1986, during the course of an interview.

For a while, he pondered over the idea of hiring one of the top writers in the country for the job. He is said to have short-listed Khushwant Singh, Pritish Nandy and some others.

"I have been too busy for the last few years, but now I have made up my mind to go ahead with the project. I have hired a lady journalist from Punjab to write the memoirs for me. I think I have made the right choice," he told this scribe.

However, the project crashed even before it could take off. The woman scribe wanted to travel around the world with him and see for herself what he was doing from close quarters. "I don't think I can afford to have a woman around with me at this age," he explained a year later when the topic about his autobiography was broached.

"But I am very serious about it. I have decided to dictate notes to my secretary and once they are ready I will ask a friend from the media to help me with the final version," he said.

Meanwhile, his son Kanwar Onkar Singh took over as the chairman of the Apollo Tyres and Raunaq Singh became chairman emeritus of the group.

"I am happy that he has taken over the chairmanship of the company. I have had my innings. I get Rs 100,000 per month and I also have a permanent room in a five-star hotel. The reason why I want to write my own book is to set the record straight and undo the damage that one of my daughters-in-law did to the family by writing a book," said an emotional Raunaq, when this correspondent met the elderly entrepreneur a couple of years ago.

Raunaq Singh now had all the time in the world at his disposal to have his memoirs written, but the thing that worried him more than anything else was the financial aspect of the project. "I want someone to write the book for me, but the person should not overcharge me," he explained.

His frugality was hardly unusual or surprising, considering the fact that he came to India as a refugee after the Partition and started selling steel tubes, first on a bicycle and later from a small shop in Kolkata.

He 'could afford only one paisa a day for meals 40 years ago,' but his group now employs 9,000 people and another 20,000 people get indirect work through his companies.

The Raunaq Group's major companies include Apollo Tyres Ltd, Bharat Gears Ltd, Bharat Steel Tubes Ltd, Raunaq International Ltd, Menarini Raunaq Pharma Ltd, and Raunaq Automotive Components Ltd.

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