New Delhi: It was, by his own
account, a chance encounter with Rajiv Gandhi, who later became Prime
Minister, that turned former soldier Kushal Pal Singh into the man who
built a city from nothing and made billions in the process.
Mr Singh was toppled from his spot as India's richest property
developer this week, when his company DLF Ltd was hit with an
unprecedented three-year ban from capital markets, accused by the
regulator of failing to disclose key information at the time of its
record-breaking 2007 market listing.
Investors wiped more than Rs. 7000 crore off the indebted company's market value after the decision.
Called a visionary developer, Mr Singh has been among the most
influential names in the country of recent decades as the man who built
"boom city" Gurgaon and fostered the outsourcing industry - with a
little help, he says, from ex-General Electric boss Jack Welch.
To its cheerleaders, Gurgaon, the city he imagined and built 15 miles
outside national capital Delhi, is a prototype of where young, upwardly
mobile Indians want to live and work. The outsourcing boom has made the
city India's third-richest.
"It is India's first smart city," said Rajeev Talwar, executive
director at DLF. "Its infrastructure may be creaking ... but there is a
new part which supports a new kind of life."
To its detractors, though, Gurgaon is the epitome of the fervid real
estate speculation and dysfunctional urban sprawl that threaten India's
cities as population booms. Water and power are unreliable, social
problems abound and private contractors have had to step in where the
police have failed.
Its population ballooned by about three-quarters to 1.5 million people in a decade.
After a decade in power the Congress, led by Sonia Gandhi, was ousted
in this year's general election by Narendra Modi's BJP. Exit polls show
that Haryana, which includes Gurgaon, too is set to throw out the
Congress in a state election held this week. Results are due Sunday.
Mr Singh has been seen as close to the Gandhi family for years. In his
autobiography, he describes how in 1980 he accidentally met Rajiv
Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi's husband and the country's prime minister from
1984 to 1989, when the latter was travelling to Gurgaon and had stopped
for water to cool his car's radiator.
Mr Singh, whose family property firm had been pushed out of the capital
by strict development laws, says he shared his plan for the dry and
desolate Gurgaon region, and his fate was sealed.
In the next few years, Mr Singh - who is even at 82 a sharp dresser
with military bearing - acquired 3,500 acres of land in Gurgaon, some of
it still undeveloped.
"A salute to the old man to have at that time thought of putting
together the entire site and not be tempted to gain by selling parcels
of land to other developers," said Anuj Puri, chairman and country head
of Jones Lang LaSalle, a property consultancy that advises DLF.
In 2007, DLF listed in what was then India's largest IPO. The atmosphere at DLF, one employee recalled, was "electric".
Opposition party members and anti-corruption activists have accused DLF
of improper land deals with Robert Vadra, the son in law of Sonia
Gandhi.
The timing of market regulator Sebi's order this week, two days before
the Haryana polls, has strengthened the view that DLF's close ties with
the Congress could work against it. DLF and its supporters say they will
seek to work with all governments, regardless of political shades.
But even detractors say it is not the end of the road for Mr Singh or
DLF. "It is not the end of the road for them. These companies don't
disappear," said Prashant Bhushan, a veteran lawyer who has long
campaigned against DLF.
Copyright: Thomson Reuters 2014
India's wholesale price inflation eased to a near five-year low in
September, helped by a moderation in food and fuel prices, but the risk
of price shocks is expected to prevent the central bank from cutting
interest rates soon.