Book Review: The Polyester Prince – The banned biography of Dhirubhai Ambani

Book Review: The Polyester Prince – The banned biography
of Dhirubhai Ambani

This book on Dhirubhai Ambani’s Empire is a
thrilling experience as it talks about the toughest times of Reliance which has
gone into the making of it and is kept away from public domain for obvious
reasons. Even if people close to Ambanis are aware, they don’t dare to speak
against the mightiest and the fastest growing invulnerable business house of
India. RIL as on date is the
most profitable and most revenue generating private company of India
and the tactics (yes, the word is used deliberately) used by Late Mr. Dhirubhai
Ambani which has become the trademark of the group may be appreciable in terms
of financial acumen but when it comes to ethics, value and principles they are
big zero.

You name it and Reliance had been all through it –
from stock market rigging, undercutting, under invoicing, non payment of duties,
cheating share holders, havala, harshad Mehta, bofors and framing of Nusli
Wadia, they are involved in every damn scam. Though Reliance gathered lot of
International attention due to increasing profits and revenue, it could not
avoid getting into controversies too due to n number of cases running against
it. I feel ashamed on discovering that some of the political leaders whom I
thought to be man of ethics where puppets in the hands of Dhirubhai. For those
who tried to raise their voice against Reliance like Nusli Wadia, The Indian
Express and a chosen few political leaders had a bad fate as with the ascent of
time, Dhirubhai became bigger than the government and if the political party
tried to take any step against him, he threatened to pull down the
government.

The author says that the Indian political system
was driven by the prices of polyester and he has made a right remark as Indian
corporate war between the Wadias and Ambanis started with polyester and later on
spread among political parties with one supporting the Ambanis and very few who
were the real preachers of values and principals supporting the Wadias. But the
influence of Dhirubhai on New
Delhi was so strong that everything worked the way he
wanted it to whether it was getting a license or getting action against his
business competitors and creating troubles for him like it was done for Nusli
Wadia. Dhirubhai manipulated the laws and customs rules in the way he wanted
them to be and by the time government realized the loopholes in the rules, he
had already made his buck. He exploited the Indian government, their rules and
tax system to the best of his ability which is very clear from the fact that
Reliance is the only company which never paid taxes even after three decades of
listing and went on giving bonus and dividends to shareholders. It took too long
for the government to react and it was only for Reliance that Minimum Alternate
Tax was brought in action. There had been a sheer injustice against the
competitors of Reliance as all of them were not allowed to flourish in a similar
environment but at the end of the day what matters is the return on investment.
This is where Reliance had been right there by declaring dividends and bonus to
stake holders. So it would be right to say, it was government and the system
which was at loss. Billions of rupees which should have gone to the coffer of
government went into building Reliance Empire and also went for paying bribes to
the government babus.

Rich, powerful, intelligent, shrewd but a
man sans ethics and values – this is how the author has described Dhirubhai
Amabni in his book.I hope by know all of
you must be aware of the reason for the book being banned in India.
Someone who smuggled entire factory into India, who purchased the government can easily
get the book and the author banned in India if he dares to raise voice
against him. I really appreciate this work of Hamish McDonald
who went against the stream to expose Dhirubhai and his group to the public. It
is an interesting and must read for those who are interested in India Inc but
the only option left to them is to smuggle the book into India from some foreign location as Dhirubhai
smuggled the entire factory set up at Patalganga because the book is banned in
India.

Extract from the
book

'Today the fact is that Ambani is bigger than
government,' said the lawyer in all seriousness. 'He can make or break prime
ministers. In the United
States you can build up a super corporation but
the political system is still bigger than you. In India the system
is weak. If the stock exchange dares to expose Ambani, he tells it: I will pull
my company shares out and make you collapse. I am bigger than your exchange. If
the newspapers criticize, he can point out they are dependent on his advertising
and he has his journalists in every one of their departments. If the political
parties take a stand against him, he has his men in every party who can pull
down or embarrass the leaders. He is a threat to the system. Today he is
undefeatable.'

But two of India's sharpest business journalists
did get Dhirubhai to admit that stroking government was his biggest task. 'The
most important external environment is the Government of India,' he told India Today's T
N. Ninan and Jagannath Dubashi. 'You have to sell your ideas to the government.
Selling the idea is the most important thing, and for that I'd meet anybody in
the government. I am willing to salaam anyone. One thing you won't find in me
and that is ego.'