Anil Ambani’s companies shoot off legal notices to Congress party leaders, lawsuits to follow?

It looks like things have gone too far now. Following the Congress’ refusal to desist from their shoot and scoot politics over the issue of the Rafale deal, painted as a ‘major scam’ by the Congress, business magnate Anil Ambani has given a strict ultimatum: behave responsibly on the Rafale deal or face a law suit.

In a legal notice addressed to Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill, jointly issued by Reliance Defence Limited, Reliance Aerostructure and Anil Ambani led Reliance Infrastructure, the Congress has been warned about its frivolous and irresponsible statements with respect to the Rafale deal. To quote the notice: “…Freedom of expression and speech should not be mistaken as a license to behave irresponsibly and make false, frivolous, misleading and distorted statements to suit your political interest”.

The complainants also named Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala, Ashok Chavan, Sanjay Nirupam, Anugrah Narayan Singh, Oommen Chandy, Shaktisinh Gohil, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sunil Kumar Jakhar and Priyanka Chaturvedi, who are accused by the complainants of ‘making incorrect, false, frivolous statements against Reliance’. 

The notice also alleges that Congress leaders are indulging in what appears to be a “vilification campaign” to “deliberately besmirch” the name and reputation of the company for “petty personal and political gains”. Warning them of harsher consequences, Reliance Group also reported that it reserves the right to take legal recourse for the “protection of their name, brand, reputation and goodwill in case of any scurrilous statements being made against them”. 

This is not the first time Reliance Group has resorted to such harsh warnings. The controversy should’ve been done and dusted long ago when Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, backed effectively by irrefutable evidence as provided by the French government with respect to the airplane deal, brought the castle of allegations as posed by Congress, hurtling down.

Instead, what Congress is doing under the leadership of their politically volatile President Rahul Gandhi is the process Arvind Kejriwal is notorious for: shoot and scoot politics. Despite every evidence stacked against their claims, they just aren’t refusing to calm down, continuously spreading misinformation and malicious allegations for mere electoral benefits.

Even Anil Ambani had to step in when Rahul Gandhi’s vicious campaign against the Rafale deal refused to fade away. In a terse letter, he exposed Rahul’s brazen lies, noting, ”…Congress has been misinformed, misdirected and misled by malicious vested interests and corporate rivals about the Rafale deal…” He had also written a letter in December last year to ‘rightly’ inform the Congress that the offset deal is actually between the Reliance group and Rafale manufacturer Dassault, and there is no question of government interference. 

However, if Reliance Group has been forced to talk about possible legal action against Congress Party members, it is solely because of the deep contempt the current party leadership has towards anything even remotely connected with the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Besides, we’re no strangers to Congress’ inherent hatred for entrepreneurship and the corporate world. However, going by the current reaction to Reliance’s threat of a lawsuit, it doesn’t look like Congress wishes to improve anytime soon:

Even Sunil Singh Jakhar mocked the law suit shamelessly, calling it a ‘paper plane’. If that is the case, we wonder what will happen if Reliance actually files a law suit. Will Congress be ready to face another defeat, or will they take a leaf from Arvind Kejriwal’s page and write out a slew of apologies ? Only time will tell.