Did Ratan Tata refuse to sell Tata Sumo to Pakistan?

A debunked six years old claim attributed to Ratan Tata is circulating on social media once again.

The present version of this hoax tries to inflame communal bias & compare the patriotic values of the Parsi community against Muslims.

The message claims that Ratan Tata refused to sell Tata Sumo cars to Pakistan despite being requested by former commerce minister in UPA, Anand Sharma, to consider the proposal by Pakistani industrialists.
Message: “”YOU COULD BE SHAMELESS, I AM NOT” ~ Ratan Tata. Few months after 26/11, Taj group of Hotels owned by TATAs launched their biggest tender ever for remodeling all their Hotels in India and abroad. Some of the Pakistani companies also applied for that tender. To make their bid stronger, two big industrialists from Pakistan visited Bombay House (Head office of Tata) in Mumbai without an appointment to meet up with Ratan Tata since he was not giving them any prior appointment. They were made to wait at the reception of Bombay house and after a few hours, a message was conveyed to them that Ratan Tata is busy and cannot meet anyone without a prior appointment. Frustrated, these two Pakistani industrialists went to Delhi and through their High Commission met up a Congress Minister. Then this minister, Anand Sharma immediately called up Ratan Tata requesting him to meet up with the two Pakistani Industrialists and consider their tender “ENTHUSIASTICALLY.”

Ratan Tata replied…”You could be shameless, I am not” & put the phone down. Few months later when Pakistani government placed an order of TataSumos to be imported into Pakistan, Ratan Tata refused to ship a single vehicle to that country. This is his respect and love for his motherland. He placed the nation above money & business. Something Kejriwal & his likes can learn from him, who are mostly seen appeasing terrorists & separatists to keep their Pakistani Masters happy. Not to forget, Ratan Tata is a man of Parsi background that constitutes one of the two Zoroastrian communities of the Indian subcontinent. His community is minuscule in India but every single one of them has made India proud. While Tata Parivar is full of Patriotism, we have some so-called minorities who are either busy begging freebies or helping Pakistan plant bombs. And when they are caught, they fake victim-hood & make martyrs out of terrorists. Share so it reaches all the UNDESERVING LOSERS who stay in India but work for their handlers in Pakistan.”

Currently, different versions of this message is being shared by many Facebook pages and accounts.

Another one is :
“Tata Group rejects Pakistan governments multi-crore offer to buy Tata Sumo Grande.
Tata Group head Ratan Tata rejected this offer saying “There will be no business with a country indulge in launching terror operations against India.”
A grand salute to Ratan Tata for this patriotic gesture.
Unfortunately we have very few successful people like him remaining in India who give such importance to Nationalism and National dignity over monetary gain.
We salute you!”

 

The actual origin of this message is unknown, but it was published in an article on Bharat Autos website, dated 8th August 2012, which said that Pakistan wanted to buy Tata Sumo Grande from Tata Group for use of Pakistan police. Post this article, the message started to spread on social networking platforms like Facebook, and various Defence and Automotive forums. However, the message is not a fact.
A YouTube video, titled ‘You clould be shameless…I’m not : TATA’s Answer to Pakistani’s’ published on July 15, 2016 has received more than 6 lakh views and 10000 ‘likes’. It narrates the same story propagated over the last six years.

We couldn’t find the any press release on the official Tata Motors Website on this topic. However, a tweet from the official handle of Tata Motors on July 16, 2013 confirms that claim is untrue.
And below is the official response from a Tata Motors spokesperson regarding this news:

“The news is incorrect – the company has not received any such order, and the trade between India & Pakistan, automobiles are in the restricted list. Hence, the question of Pakistan having placed any order with Tata Motors for automobiles does not arise.”

 

Therefore, this message is a hoax and need not be shared. Such messages have been propagating in the social media for a long time & continue to circulate with periodic regularity which needs to stop.
And this can only happen if we become aware & stop forwarding any message which matches or inflames our confirmation bias.