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Kejriwal trains his guns on Mukesh’s RIL

Accuses Congress, BJP of favouring Reliance; says Ambani hoarding natural gas to make profits.

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It doesn’t matter if the Congress or the BJP is at the Centre because the country is run by Reliance, said Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday, taking on Reliance Industries (RIL), India’s biggest industrial house, as part of his campaign against corruption and crony capitalism.

The activist-turned-politician accused both political parties of working hand in glove with Mukesh Ambani’s RIL. He accused Ambani of “hoarding natural gas of the country for making profits” and said that the Congress-led UPA government as well as its predecessor, the BJP-led NDA, had conceived and implemented policies favouring RIL.

Kejriwal linked the ‘hoarding’ of gas with the high cost of power and other goods. Corporate profit motive had led to inflation, he said.

Questioning the government’s move to remove S Jaipal Reddy from the petroleum ministry recently, Kejriwal said the decision was taken to benefit RIL. Reddy had opposed several demands of RIL, including that of increasing the price of natural gas from KGD6 basin.

“Mukesh Ambani wanted to increase the price of gas from $4.20 per unit to $14.2 per unit. Reddy opposed the decision and that is why he was removed,” Kejriwal said. “Whoever takes action against Ambani will have to make way for a more pliable minister. In the past, Mani Shankar Aiyar had to leave the petroleum ministry for the same reasons.”

“The resources of the country need to be reclaimed,” Prashant Bhushan, the other India Against Corruption member, said. “Crony capitalism has created a corporate mafia which has grave consequences for democracy.”

RIL rejected charges of receiving favours from the government for its KGD6 gas project. “The statements made by IAC... are devoid of any truth or substance whatsoever and are denied,” the company said in a statement.

KGD6 fields, India’s first deep-sea project, “has added great economic value to the country and by all accounts is a project of which India can be justly proud”, RIL said. “Irresponsible allegations made by IAC at the behest of vested interests without basic understanding of the complexities of a project of this nature do not merit a response.”

Kejriwal and Bhushan started the press conference by playing an audio clip from the Nira Radia tapes where former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s foster son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya and Radia are heard quoting Mukesh Ambani saying “Congress toh apni dukaan hai”. Bhattacharya also boasts of his close connection with Congress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Kejriwal questioned the investment multiplier (IM) formula used in the production sharing contract (PSC) for the KGD6 basin that allowed the company to recover any amount of capital invested in the project, irrespective of its actual performance in the production of gas.

Terming the 30% stake, which RIL gave British Petroleum in the KG basin, “illegal”, Kejriwal alleged Reliance had sold the country’s resources to foreign companies despite being just an operator of the gas field. “Reliance is just a contractor hired by government to extract gas.”

Kejriwal said prime minister Manmohan Singh was sympathetic towards RIL. Though Jaipal Reddy had refused to allow a price rise the way RIL wanted it, Singh has sought the opinion of the attorney general. “Either he is being misled by people in the Congress or he doesn’t know what is happening,” Kejriwal said.

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