Not just the corporates, even $4 paid their respects to him.
India’s coffee king VG Siddhartha $4 is being remembered as the man who brought coffee culture to India before Starbucks. The promoter of Coffee Day Enterprises was a sharp businessman taken out by bad times, allegedly by aggressive taxmen. He was someone who played a silent but significant role in shaping India’s IT revolution, and benefited from it hugely.
He was loved by the close-knit and elite Bengaluru corporate circuit of which Siddhartha was an influential member for more reasons than one.
However, he is barely getting any credit for being just as savvy politically as in business. He had friends across parties and made strong connections. It seemed that way until his mysterious disappearance on July 29 and the discovery of his dead body in the Netravathi river two days later. The grief of all leaders from all parties once again underscored the point.
Taxing times
Siddhartha $4 in a letter that he sent to the Board of Directors of his company before he went missing, which led many to blame ‘tax terrorism’ for his plight.
The Income Tax Department countered saying that the $4 having ₹480 crore of unaccounted wealth. However, he did not reveal the source or pay the tax due on that money until his death, according to the department.
Siddhartha’s harassment charge at the tax department came at a time while his father-in-law SM Krishna is with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), that’s ruling at the centre and state. He $4 after being in the rival Congress camp for 46 years.
However, Krishna was conspicuous in his silence during the chaotic political power play in Karnataka over the last few weeks. The bitter battle for power was $4 BJP, and BS Yediyurappa was $4, three days before Siddhartha’s disappearance and death.
One of the many who were holding off Yediyurappa from claiming power was Congress leader DK Shivakumar, a political mastermind from Karnataka who put up a fervent fight against the BJP. He is also a close friend of Siddhartha. Therefore, Shivkumar’s outburst soon after Siddhartha went missing was not surprising.
Shivakumar too, has a tax case against him and his premises were raided in 2017 by officials who $4 and, shockingly, $4.
From Shivakumar to Yediyurappa to Kumaraswamy, people across the political spectrum are grieving Siddhartha’s untimely death. It is also a testament to the fact that in India, businessmen cannot thrive without politically astute connections.
The Rajkumar Ransom
Both the success of his ventures and his father-in-law’s power made Siddhartha important in Karnataka. When S M Krishna’s government was frantically coming up with a massive ransom necessary to free $4, Siddhartha came to help.
According to an account, $4 that included the then CM Krishna, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Abdul Karim Telgi. Telgi is better known for his $2.9 billion fake stamp paper scam, and was acquitted from it, $4.
The government of Karnataka at the time $4 from $4 who modelled himself after Robin Hood.
However, it has been alleged many times that $4 to secure the release of the actor, while thousands of Rajkumar’s fans took to the streets to protest, violently at times.
The role and involvement of Siddhartha may remain unclear. The length of the arm between Chief Minister Krishna and his son-in-law in state matters may remain anybody’s guess.
While the details of Siddhartha's political prowess may remain unknown, his achievements in business have been celebrated abundantly.
Coffee estate to real estate
India has always had coffee houses, in the big cities at least, where for decades thinkers, lovers, and revolutionaries have hung out. Siddhartha’s chain Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) brought the 21st century colours to this culture.
It may have helped that his father-in-law SM Krishna -- Chief Minister of Karnataka between 1999 to 2004 -- was a man with massive political clout at the time. However, Siddhartha’s privilege does not take away the credit due for his business acumen.
There are many who own estates in $4 but it was Siddhartha who made the right moves at the right time and CCD became the go-to place for young Indians at the turn of the century long before competitors woke up to the opportunity.
Privileged and benevolent
Siddhartha not only built his own empire of coffee chains, real estate, financial services and logistics, he also supported entrepreneurs who went on to become icons in their own right. Infosys is a shining example, which went on to be the first poster boy of India’s IT revolution. However, the company didn’t have enough takers for its shares at the time of its IPO. Siddhartha, who was a stock broker in Bengaluru at the time, had underwritten those shares and bought them. He made a lot of money out of it but only because he knew their worth when no one else did.
Infosys and Mindtree are $4 were Siddhartha backed entrepreneurs.
He owed a lot of his wisdom and foresight to the training he received under Mahendra Kampani (1959 to 2017), one of the stars of India’s stock market, who was the sitting member of the governing board at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) $4.
After his Masters in Economics, Siddhartha got his early training at JM Financial under Kampani in 1983-84. Those two years of training and some capital from his father made him an independent broker in Bengaluru later. It was then that he underwrote the shares of Infosys and profited from the investment.
The other ventures and profits followed this initial success. However, one may wonder if he could have built his fortune as a businessman in India without being just as savvy politically.
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