Monday, August 17, 2009

road show

This is a road show with a difference. Anil Ambani has obviously done many road shows in his career to raise money for RIL and over the last few years for his own group companies, but his present road show is novel and thought provoking. By inserting adverts in all national dailies - small and big - two days running, he has evoked a strong public response to his fight for justice. By asking people to respond by giving an e mail id and sms number, he has done his homework extremely well. The public is responding to his charges, much like his senior counsel Ram Jethmalani's crusade against Rajiv Gandhi by asking 10 questions daily in the Indian Express 20 years ago.

It is a deliberately thought out ploy to involve not just his Group's 8 million shareholders, but also to provoke a wider public debate on RIL's shenanigans and its unholy nexus with RIL. The nexus is clearly to stymie NTPC and RNRL from getting gas from the KG Basin fields despite iron clad contracts having been signed.

On Tuesday, Anil Ambani through his advertisement asked - At the stroke of a pen, and in a matter of days, the petroleum ministry has approved a shockingly disproportionate 400 percent hike in the project cost of RIL's KG D6 gas fields from Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 45,000 crore. This could result in a loss of up to Rs 30,000 crore to the Government of India, as per its agreement with RIL. The retail power tariffs may also go up by 50 % or more than Re 1 per unit. Is this in public or national interest?

National or public interest, that is the clarion call given by RADAG. In its quest for justice, prepare yourself for many more such questions in the coming days. What is perhaps most interesting here is that Anil Ambani is not targeting the government, but consciously only a section of it - the petroleum ministry which has joined hands with elder brother Mukesh Ambani to pull off a grand heist amounting to Rs 30,000 crore. Meanwhile Anil Ambani's mother Kokilaben travels with him from one pilgrimage spot to another reposing her faith in the younger son in this battle against injustice.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Kudos to Junior Ambani on his BOLD and unconventional move!!! as reported by times of india -
The stinging ad's raised a stink. Shouting from the front page of virtually every newspaper, the multi-crore campaign accusing the petroleum ministry of favouring RIL at the cost of ''navaranta'' NTPC in the now famous gas row, made the ministry defensive on Monday, prodded RIL to give out figures and estimates as explanation, and had ad professionals munching on whether this aggressive form of communication through advertising was a trend setter.