A lot of allegations have been made with respect to Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the company’s executives and their personal relationships and associations with certain Ministers in Gujarat.
The most serious allegation is that RIL has unfairly benefited on account of its relationship with these Ministers. At the offset, we’d like to state that the concerned ministers do have a portfolio consisting of energy, oil & gas and other petroleum assets. It’s also true that these Ministers do have a personal friendship with the Ambani family.
Now let’s examine whether these Ministers have helped RIL in any way or that they are even in a position to do so.
The story that RIL executives have a relationship with these afore-mentioned ministers and hence have benefited unfairly has been doing the rounds for some time now. It’s quite shocking. Where RIL is involved in oil exploration and production is in Andhra Pradesh, 1500 km from Gujarat.
Gas comes under the purview of the Union Government and not the State Government. State Government does indeed have the portfolio of petroleum for its boundaries but even this, according to the constitution comes under the authority of the Central Government. The refinery in Gujarat is de-regulated. Anyone can trade and it’s very old. How can ministers possibly have an impact here?
Another critical thing we’d like to address here is that RIL has absolutely no involvement in the mining industry in Gujarat.
All of RIL’s processing units, factories and offices get electricity from Captive Power Plants, i.e., RIL runs an offshore plant to supply all of its industrial entities with power. Hence, the allegation that RIL benefits from their relationships with Ministers is baseless, out of line, politically motivated and most importantly, to demean and tarnish the image of the company in the eyes of the public.
The people of India need to understand that the Ministers concerned have no constitutional authority in the Republic of India and even if they wanted to, couldn’t possibly get things done for RIL.