Politicians, India Inc pay homage to Brijmohan Lall Munjal

NEW DELHI: Brijmohan Lall Munjal, founder of the Hero Group, was cremated on Monday in New Delhi in a ceremony attended by business and political leaders paying tribute to one of the titans of the country’s auto industry.

They included former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Sunil Bharti Mittal of the Bharti Group, Shivinder and Malvinder Singh of Fortis Healthcare, finance minister Arun Jaitley and former commerce minister Anand Sharma. Also in attendance were the junior ministers for power, Piyush Goyal, and information and broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

Munjal, who died on Sunday, is survived by wife Santosh, children Raman Kant, Suman Kant, Pawan Kant and Sunil Kant, apart from grandchildren. His legacy includes Hero Cycles and Hero MotoCorp, the latter having started life as Hero Honda, a joint venture with the Japanese company. Born in 1923 in pre-partition Punjab, Munjal started out by making bicycle parts, going on to set up the world’s largest cycle manufacturer in Hero Cycles and then the world’s largest two wheeler manufacturer in what eventually became Hero Moto-Corp. His contribution was considered vital not just to the two-wheeler industry.