The Well-oiled Machinery of Crony Capitalism

Dhirubhai Ambani used famously to say that his biggest task was to manage the Indian govt, which was “the most important external environment” impacting his business. What was valorised in the Indian media of the 1980s as a model of dazzling entrepreneurship was, in large part, about bending the arc of government and policy to his advantage.  

So, Arvind Kejriwal‘s and Prashant Bhushan’s targeting of Reliance as the master puppeteer that works the levers of the UPA govt only carries forward the long-held belief that the Ambanis, even more than other business tycoons, are the real movers and shakers in the government, presiding over ministerial destinies and in turn profiting from the tweaking of policy to their advantage.

Venky Vembu: Kejriwal’s salvo is aimed at ending ‘business as usual’