The experiences bestowed by Kanchi-Mahaswami — Part 58 : Buried the book — The polyester prince

https://www.thuglak.com/thuglak/main.php?x=curissue/ninaithu_paarkiraen_08_12_2021.php

Author : Sri S.Gurumurthy

Translator : C.Rangarajan

Between 1970 and 1985, until the IE expose, both the Indian politics & Government were afraid of Ambani. Between 1985–91, until the death of Goenka, Ambani was afraid of him. Within the 1st year of our expose, Reliance was steadily losing its status and hold. In 1986, the share prices of Reliance tanked by Rs.72. We need to understand the reason behind this. Like Goenka, Ambani was a fierce fighter and strategist, too. Then, he deployed major ploys, be-friended Rajiv, and made Goenka-Rajiv fight each other.

How are you, conspirator?

In the battle against Ambani, I learned a lot from Goenka on how to confront people. No university can teach us on such matters. Both Goenka & Ambani were not well-read but very bold, extremely intelligent, and tacticians. In 1987–89, I was contemplating on the conspiracies, maneuvers to counter the continuous maneuverings of Ambani. It changed my basic innocent character. I have shared this Cho and lamented about the turn-around in my life. To prevent stories against him, Rajiv wanted to make amendments to the law and brought in the infamous defamation bill. We used that opportunity to make it a battle between Rajiv & Press.

Other than IE & Statesman, the rest of the journals were supporting the govt or maintaining neutrality. We turned them against Rajiv. We took Cho to Delhi and made him speak to other journalists. Even M.J.Akbar, a close confidant of Rajiv was turned against him in that battle. Goenka, who was 83 at that time was working as a youngster. Cho commented,” Sir, last year, Goenka was Rajiv’s friend. Rajiv was stupid enough to turn him as his enemy”. When it comes to such battles, Goenka would find his inner strength. He would address me as a ‘Conspirator’. Once, he gave me a thick writing pad and joking told me to jot down one conspiracy/day. I continue to ruminate on those happenings (Cho tried to mediate between Rajiv & IE and Ambani & myself. It created some differences between us and will share them in the future).

The story behind the creation of the book ‘The Polyester Prince’

IE’s fight with Ambani & Rajiv shook the government, political parties, business, finance & press and made them discuss them in-depth. This had ramifications at the international level. Ambani had a major role in the toppling of the Janata government (1977) and V.P.Singh government (1989). Hamish McDonald, Far Eastern Economic Review had documented the details in his book, ‘The Polyester Prince — The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani’.

Let me share some important anecdotes from the book and this may help to understand the reason behind Goenka’s war on Ambani. It was not a battle between two big personalities. It was a battle between corrupt Ambani and patriotic Goenka. Initially, Ambani thought Hamish could be managed and gave him the approval for the book. Later, it turned out to be a book that went against Ambani. Finally, he used his clout to prevent the release of the book.

Meeting McDonald

In 1995, there was a power tussle in the Goenka family. I & R.V.Pandit mediated in that. As per the agreement, IE was split into two and a new one was started in South India under the name “New Indian Express”. Then, I started going back to the IE office. In 1996, Jamnadas Moorjani told me to meet an Australian journalist, Hamish McDonald. He was in the process of writing a book on Ambani with a focus on his scams. He came to Chennai and I met him. He was asking the reason behind IE’s fight against Ambani. I was not sure about Hamish’ credentials. Hence, I hesitated.

Hamish shared some details and that made me believe. Like many journalists, Hamish was also invited for Anil Ambani’s marriage in 1991. Hamish & Ambani’s friendship grew. He interviewed Ambani. Hamish started reading more about Ambani and planned for a book on Ambani. He shared the idea with Ambani and sought his approval. It was approved. Hamish started writing on all aspects about Ambani in his magazine. This angered Ambani and mentioned that Hamish was trying to defame him. Then, he started investigating for more details and resigned from the job. This made me believe in his endeavor. Then, I shared the details with me. The book was released by Allen & Unwin in 1998.

McDonald : 3-in-1 Ambani

Hamish had mentioned the reason for writing the book. He quoted the following about Ambani. There are 3 Ambanis:

1. A tall iconic brand. He was the most famous industrialist, had attracted Gujaratis emotionally & had motivated many youngsters
2. a first-rate liar and man without ethics & morals
3. a very modern political strategist, deep-dreamer, and a visionary like Napoleon

To understand him more comprehensibly, one has to comprehend these 3 aspects of Ambani.

Hamish quoted a noted jurist that Advani is more powerful than the Government and he could make or break a government. In the western world., one can form a super company but the political power is the most supreme. Whereas, it was the opposite in India. The political power structure was weak in India. If you tried to expose him in the stock market then he would withdraw his stocks from the market. If a journalist threaten to expose him then he would threaten to stop the advertisements to the associated journal. He had placed his own set of people in the newspaper offices. If any political leader tried to expose him then using his cloud he would uproot that leader. No one was ready to criticize Ambani in India. Hence, Hamish thought that he would take up the task of writing the book.

Hamish considered him dangerous in 1992. Before that, Goenka had mentioned the same about Ambani in 1985. Both Hamish & Goenka had a common cause to pursue their activity against Ambani. Rajiv’s government was incompetent to handle him. Other PMs like Morarji, V.P.Singh, Vajpayee & Modi kept him away at a distance. Ambani’s family was always close to Indira’s family.

Buried Story

Kabir Ghosh & Paranjoy Guha Thakurtha in their book, “Sue the Messenger” had given the details about the banning of the book. “The Wire” website has shared some details in its website (“The Unhappy Prince: How Reliance buried a book”).

In India, McDonald had given the copyright to Harper & Collins publishers. From there, that info was leaked to Ambani. He was accused of defamation by McDonald and issued legal notices to all the parties involved. Hamish and his Australian publisher did not care about it. But, Ambani got an interim stay in India.

This had happened in 1997 and the interim stay continues, even today. Harper Collins did not want to antagonize Ambani and even burnt all the copies. It was the only book banned by the courts in India.

Paperback

Surprisingly, in 2008, after 10 years, the book was sold on the streets of Mumbai. It was more in a concise, edited form. No one knew the hand behind this. My friend had sent me 500 copies. Later, Hamish McDonald had removed certain parts and released in the name, “ Mahabharatha in Polyester: The making of World’s richest brothers and their feud”.