Congress president Rahul Gandhi has accused Anil Ambani of crony capitalism. (PTI) Congress president Rahul Gandhi has accused Anil Ambani of crony capitalism. (PTI)

Congress president is engaging in a “calumny, disinformation, distortion and malicious lies,” the Reliance group said on Sunday, rebutting the claims of Rahul Gandhi that Anil Ambani is a crony capitalist. The group said that it got over Rs 1 lakh crore of contracts during the UPA rule under then prime minister Manmohan Singh as well.

In an interview with The Indian Express, Rahul Gandhi had said, “People like Anil Ambani are crony capitalists. I don’t put Anil Ambani, Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya in the honest bracket.”

Responding to Gandhi’s charges, Reliance Group in a statement said, “He has singled out our group chairman Anil D Ambani as allegedly a crony capitalist and dishonest businessman – all obviously patently untrue statements.” The statement also added that during the 10-year Congress-led UPA regime between 2004 and 2014, Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group was awarded projects of over Rs 1 lakh crore across diverse infrastructure sectors such as power, telecom, roads, metro, by a government-led by the Congress party.

“The Reliance Group takes this opportunity to request Rahul Gandhi to clarify whether his government, for 10 long years, was supporting an alleged crony capitalist and dishonest businessman, to use Gandhi’s own words,” the statement added.

It is to be noted that the Congress has opened a barrage of attacks on Anil Ambani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the controversies surrounding the Rafale fighter aircraft deal with the French government for the Indian Air Force (IAF). The Congress chief has alleged corruption on the part of PM Modi.

Gandhi had said that corporates like Anil Ambani “spoil the name of the great corporate legends of this country, who have done a fantastic job and I am an all-out supporter of their incredible work.”

Congress has been alleging that the Reliance Group under Anil Ambani has received benefits from the offset contract and all the Rafale proceedings to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore, at the expense of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

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