Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday recalled the launch of “people’s car” Maruti 800 40 years ago, and said Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi played a quiet but hugely effective role in the background.

Former environment minister Ramesh also said that while celebrating Maruti-Suzuki and its multiple impacts, let us also pause and worry a bit from the inequality and climate change point of view that more than 50 per cent of car sales are now of SUVs.

In a post on X, Ramesh said, "Today 40 years ago, the consumer revolution overtook India and its engineering industry got transformed. The Maruti 800, the people's car was launched and the nation recalls Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, who played a quiet but hugely effective role in the background." It is also important to recall O Suzuki and V Krishnamurthy who made the landmark Suzuki-Maruti joint venture possible, he noted.

Krishnamurthy had earlier built BHEL and was to later turn around SAIL, Ramesh pointed out.

"One of the greatest public sector managers India has produced. He (Krishnamurthy) offered me a job on three different occasions but my sights, rightly or wrongly, were elsewhere. He was a most compelling personality," Ramesh said.

"Forty years later, while we celebrate Maruti-Suzuki (that is now only Suzuki) and its multiple impacts, let us also pause and worry a bit from the inequality and climate change point of view that more than 50 per cent of car sales are now of SUVs," he said.

December 14, 1983 marked the birth of the iconic Maruti 800 that has remained one of the most successful cars India has ever seen.

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