NEW DELHI: Late afternoon on Friday, when Mahindra & Mahindra CEO
Anand Mahindra walked out of his pavilion at the
Delhi Auto Expo, he was instantly surrounded by milling visitors who mobbed him, clicked pictures with their mobiles, flashed cameras, shouted his name and showed him double thumbs-up signs. Others patted him on the back, shouting 'sir you are great'. "This is not Auto Expo...this is Kumbh Mela," Mahindra said tongue-in-cheek, surveying the near-stampede situation everywhere in the venue where CEOs and officials were being jostled and pushed. The two-day preview for VIPs and business visitors ending on Friday - where entry was through free passes - turned into an unmanageable surge as several thousands trickled in since afternoon. Auto CEOs were clearly upset with the expo organizers who had issued too many free passes, turning the "VIP" viewing into a free-for-all. "CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) needs to be jolted out of this...this is organizational failure," said Mahindra. Agreed TVS MD Venu Srinivasan, "The problem is that too many free passes were issued which turned what was meant to be a business-only day into a general picnic. By the time the
opening ceremony happened, not too many auto CEOs stayed back." Both Mahindra and Srinivasan have headed
CII in the past. Exhibitors complained about their business visitors not being able to enter the venue or being jostled in the mad rush once inside. "We have been facing mismanagement from day one - CII needs to do something about it," said Sanjay Chakraborty, vice-president of Bosch. CII refused to comment, but off
the record, officials admitted that too many passes had been issued, turning a business-meeting scenario to public viewing. Just how many passes were given out is not known, though. The swelling crowds crashed barriers and broke through glass panels separating the car enclosures as people pushed and shoved for free giveaways. Said Anoop Prakash, MD, Harley Davidson India: "I didn't expect crowds of this size on a day when the fair is not yet open to the public. We weren't prepared to handle this kind of crowd and quite frankly we are not the only ones surprised by the mismanagement." The popularity of auto honchos like Mahindra and
Ratan Tata (who also attracted a fair number of general visitors who thronged his presser on Thursday just to see him) is an indication of just how far the passenger car industry has travelled since the time policymakers dubbed the automobile a "rich man's product". With the car becoming a middle-class product, auto CEOs are now celebrities, their faces as familiar as cricketers and cine stars. This year, the scramble was as much to catch a glimpse of a celeb - the big boys of the industry or
Bollywood - as to gawk at babes and wheels.
