'I was pressured to sell...': Aircel founder C Sivasankaran says today's India not like what it was decade ago

Chinnakannan Sivasankaran, Aircel founder, said today's India was not like what it was a decade back when growing businesses faced significant pressures, forcing many to fall in line or fold. Success back then had a problem, Sivasankaran said in a podcast hosted by Raj Shamani. 

"Politicians intervened and I lost my company," he said. 

Aircel's journey in India was fraught with challenges, including fierce competition and regulatory hurdles. The company exited the market in February 2018 due to financial problems. In 2006, Maxis Berhad, owned by Ananda Krishnan, a Malaysian citizen of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, had taken over Aircel by acquiring a 74% stake. The Aircel-Maxis deal had come under the scanner in 2011 when Sivasankaran alleged he was pressured to sell his stake to Maxis. 

"I just made a paltry sum of Rs 3,400 crore from the deal, if I would have sold it to AT&T I would have got 8 billion (sic)," Sivasankaran said. On being asked what was the compulsion then. He said India today wasn't like the India then. "Today no one can pressurise you," he said, adding back then the entrepreneur had to face pressure "to sell the company to a particular person". 

Sivasankaran said Krishnan couldn't manage to run it and eventually lost close to $45 billion, bleeding several lenders in the process. "Now you build a business no one can pressure you. Now it is a liberalised India. My complaint is not that that they forced me to sell, my complaint is they should have allowed me to sell to who offered me 8 billion."

Sivasankaran's entrepreneurial journey began in 1985 when he bought Sterling Computers from Robert Amritraj, father of tennis star Vijay Amritraj, and introduced affordable PCs at just Rs 33,000, compared to rival machines costing up to Rs 80,000. The venture propelled Sterling to the top three computer companies in India. He reportedly tried to buy into Sunil Mittal's Bharti Telecom, acquiring over 10 percent of the company by 1997. However, his demand for a board seat was denied, leading him to sell his shares to Mittal at a loss. He even made a cheeky offer to buy Enron India's troubled energy business for one rupee.