Mukesh: Opening up; Anil: Hitting back

Mumbai, Aug. 7: Anil Ambani unleashed the 3Cs poison barb once again today – almost five years after hurling a thunderbolt in November 2004 against the chamchas, chelas and cronies who had driven a wedge between the Ambani brothers which precipitated the split in the Reliance group.

Anil’s resurrection of the old rhetoric came soon after the Mukesh Ambani camp chose to break its silence on the raging gas dispute with a restrained rebuttal of the younger scion’s barrage of contentions over the past few weeks.

A frisson of excitement ran through newsrooms when it was learnt that Reliance Industries would finally respond to the charges Anil and his camp had hurled against it.

But the Mukesh reproof was mild and merely said Anil and his associates were attempting to convert what were essentially legal issues into public issues “for a self-serving media campaign” and “for private and personal gain”.

The Mukesh camp said the statements from the Anil group, which had been largely made directly to the media, were part of an orchestrated campaign “designed to bring into public debate and prejudge the issues that are pending before the Supreme Court”.

The statement drew another fusillade from Anil.

“I am pained that under my respected elder brother’s leadership, RIL is still doing everything in its power to renege on its binding commitment to supply gas to us,” Anil said.

“This is so contrary to the fundamental values of trust and integrity that my visionary father, Dhirubhai Ambani, stood for, and on the basis of which he founded Reliance. Whatever be the reason… and I have no idea what it is… corporate greed, personal vendetta, misguided advice from the 3Cs — chelas, chamchas and cronies — it is unfortunate… and deeply, deeply distressing to me at a very personal and emotional level,” Anil added.

Earlier in the day, RIL president (oil business) Atul Chandra read out the statement which deplored Anil’s comments against his elder brother. “Mukesh Ambani is profoundly saddened by his brother’s remarks, and he requests the media to respect his decision not to respond,” the statement said.

Chandra said RIL’s legal advisers had counselled it to refrain from commenting on issues before the Supreme Court. “As such, we shall continue to exercise restraint in the face of Anil Ambani’s provocative public statements. We hope Anil Ambani and his associates will also exercise similar restraint....”

RIL made only one significant point in its statement: “We have consistently maintained that in the KG basin, RIL is only a contractor engaged by the government of India to harness the basin’s hydrocarbon assets in the best interest of the nation.”

Surprisingly, the Anil camp did not challenge RIL’s contention that it was only a contractor, an issue on which it has gone ballistic earlier.

Instead, it blasted RIL for seeking refuge under a false cover of ongoing legal proceedings to skirt questions of national importance “which are not even before the Supreme Court”.

Reliance Power’s chief executive J.P Chalsani, who read out the statement from the Anil Ambani side, said there were five charges RIL had not responded to. These were:

A. Shortchanging state-owned power utility NTPC by up to Rs 30,000 crore by reneging on a binding gas supply contract;

B. Incurring a disproportionate capital expenditure on the KG gasfield that would cause losses of Rs 30,000 crore to the government;

C. Concealing the fact that there was a serious conflict of interest among the officials who cleared the high capital expenditure;

D. Hoarding gas by artificially curbing production and raising the bogey of revenue losses to the government; and

E. Making super-profits of over Rs 50,000 crore.