The Ambani war has taken a new turn. Recently, the Reliance Group Chairman & Managing Director Mukesh Ambani met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. No details were shared of what transpired at the meeting. At the same time RIL Executive Director Nikhil Meswani had a series of meetings with Finance Ministry officials. This has provided much grist to the media mill.

According to one unsubstantiated report, Mukesh and Meswani impressed upon the authorities that any investigations into frivolous charges made by Rajya Sabha member and RIL Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Anil Ambani, should be completed quickly. It is a clear indication that the Mukesh Ambani led management want to end the war of attrition as quickly as possible, in the shareholders and the companies’ interest. The meetings of Mukesh Ambani with the Prime Minister and that of Nikhil Meswani with Finance Ministry officials seem to be aimed at resolving the crisis within the country’s largest corporate entity.

Anil Ambani, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, has met the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and several top officials of the Finance Ministry on more than one occasion demanding enquiries against the RIL Group on various counts. Anil Ambani has made a number of charges, either through the media or to the authorities, on issues of corporate governance and safeguarding of the over 3 million shareholders interests. But what is surprising is that his sniping continues even as a process of settlement between the two brothers is on, at the behest of their mother, who has enlisted the help of top experts to evaluate the respective shares of the Ambani family in the Rs 90,000-crore Reliance Empire.

Reliance is a key player in vital segments of the economy, is the largest exporter, is a major employer and has a wide shareholder base of over 3 million. All the Reliance Group companies have shown profits and have drawn up investment plans for future growth.
The need of the hour is to preserve the massive strength and viability of this group, even while delineating the ownership and management domains for the two brothers. In other words, the government’s attitude over the Reliance dispute must not be anything but constructive.