Clips 'reveal' Ambani's closeness to govt, BJP

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Anti-corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal played two short audio clips sourced from the infamous Niira Radia tapes to buttress his allegation that ‘richest Indian’ Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries looted gas from its KG Basin rig.

In the Radia tapes that had exposed corporates fixing cabinet berths in the UPA regime, NDA’s prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s foster son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya was heard telling the woman lobbyist that Mukesh had told him, “Congress to ab apni dukaan hai (Congress is now our own shop)”.  Kejriwal’s associate and noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan alleged that the leaked audio tapes, which are already in public domain, were played to show that both Congress and BJP are in Mukesh Ambani’s pocket.

Ranjan Bhattacharya was recently in the news when Congress leader Digvijay Singh had said that despite having evidence against him and other BJP leaders like L K Advani, the Congress never went public, Kejriwal recalled. Singh’s remark had come after Kejriwal had exposed UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s alleged clandestine land acquisitions in Congress-ruled states and dubious business dealings with real estate firm DLF. The conversation between the duo centres on the jostling in the DMK party for ministerial berth in the UPA government that had led to a huge uproar and ultimately tainted telecom minister (former) A Raja getting the post. Vajpayee’s son-in-law is heard telling Radia that Maran, former telecom minister who was forced to exit from the government in the wake of charges against him, does not get along well in the DMK family. He also said in the audio clip that people from outside DMK chief K Karunanidhi’s family and the Congress were pushing for Maran’s entry into the council of ministers.

At the request of Radia, Bhattacharya said that he had great equations with senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, now union health minister, which he could use to pass on the word within the party.