Around January 2013, Madhu and Bindu, the sisters, were at their maternal home. They were getting ready to leave for an outing. Madhu received a call from her sister-in-law, asking whether she was coming for the YES Bank function. Madhu, unaware, asked her what the occasion was? The lady replied, ‘Oh, you don’t know? YES Bank is starting its first branch in Delhi. Sheila Dikshit (then chief minister of Delhi) is inaugurating it.’ The branch was inaugurated with the who’s who of Delhi’s power circles present, but sans Madhu Kapur.
Such was Rana Kapoor’s brazenness that when in 2012 he came out with a brief history of YES Bank, there was no mention of Ashok Kapur in it. So, here was a man who had been brought in to the elite circle of powerful bankers and had then conveniently sidelined the very same family that had included him in the fold. This was Rana Kapoor for you.
Even as all of this was going on, Rana got M.R. Srinivasan on the board in October 2012. Yes, the same man who was the head of the department that gave YES Bank its licence back in 2002. In my mind, this is nothing but a conflict of interest. But that was not it. Soon, he was made the chairman of the bank.
In April 2013, YES Bank moved a resolution at the annual general meeting seeking approval of its shareholders for the appointment of Srinivasan, who had by then assumed the post of part-time chairman, and another person, Diwan Arun Nanda, a brand guru. This was seen as a unilateral decision by Madhu and Shagun. From 1 to 15 May, Shagun wrote letters to her uncle Rana Kapoor, objecting to the appointments. The first letter went unanswered. The second also unanswered. After the third letter, Shagun received a call from her aunt Bindu Kapoor. But since Shagun was leaving for a family vacation to New York at that point, they fixed a meeting for after her return. Shagun and Madhu wanted one director to be appointed from their side, which the bank’s articles allowed them to do.
On 1 June, the Kapoors (Rana Kapoor, Bindu Kapoor and daughter Radha Kapoor) dropped in at the Kapurs’ residence. After the exchange of pleasantries, Rana, according to people present in that meeting, said, ‘Who the f*** are you to write these letters? Can’t your mother communicate this to me?’ At this moment, Madhu Kapur cut him short. ‘She has been vetting these letters with me, and I am with her in this.’ This was when Rana got agitated and started throwing his weight around, trying to show that he was very well-connected, one person who was present then told me. Many people who have worked with Rana have said that at his peak he was ‘drunk on power’. ‘I can spurt millions to get you to stop. No lawyer is going to touch me,’ he allegedly told Shagun at that moment.
After a heated discussion, Rana directed them to meet Srinivasan the next day at the Wellington Club. When they went there the next morning, Srinivasan was waiting for them. Deep inside, he knew Rana wasn’t right, but he had things at stake. His tone was demeaning for a man of his stature. He told the mother-daughter duo: ‘Rana Sahab ne bheja hai (Rana Sir has sent me).’ Here was a man, the chairman of a bank, the same bank he granted licence to a decade ago, taking orders from a rookie banker. After discussion, he asked Shagun to mail him her resume. By afternoon, the resume was sitting in his mail. He replied, ‘Excellent resume. Will get back to you.’ After two days, Srinivasan reverted saying: ‘Sorry! I have inadvertently intervened into a family matter. I would like to recuse myself.’
But Shagun, by now, had decided to put up a fight against her dictatorial uncle. She prepared a case by 5 June, and on 6 June 2013, a Thursday morning, she went with the case file to YES Bank. While she did meet Srinivasan there, he chose to not respond to her grievances citing pressure from Rana Kapoor. By 1.30 p.m. that day, she was driving towards the court. On her way, she received a call from Srinivasan who said ‘Please don’t file the case without having a concrete counter-offer.’
The court did not immediately stop the annual general meeting, which was on 8 June, but the appointment of directors was made the subject of court. When the hearing began, the Bombay High Court asked the two families to amicably settle the dispute. At this time, Shagun formally applied for the directorship, which was rejected on 27 July.
At this moment, Harkirat, who had remained quiet for almost a decade, broke his silence. ‘History is repeating itself at YES Bank,’ he said in an interview to Economic Times. Harkirat also nursed a grudge against Ashok for not supporting him. ‘They definitely conspired and teamed up to oust me from the venture,’ he said in the same interview.4
It was the first time that the truth had emerged. Harkirat had made it clear that he was the prime mover behind the banking licence, while Rana had joined later. As this unfolded, the in-laws silently sided with Rana Kapoor, trying to convince Madhu’s family by saying: ‘Why are you guys doing this to him? Look at him. He works till 12 at night.’ So, in a way, Rana and his associates used all kinds of tools—emotions, rudeness, loopholes in the law, connections—everything that was possible to keep him in power.
In July 2013, as he was locking horns with Madhu and Shagun Kapur, he became the president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India. The Assocham stint brought Rana closer to trade and the methods of the central government. To bring himself closer to those
