I met up with an old friend who is one of the myriad spokespersons the BJP has, and asked him what the party’s view was on the fight between the Ambani brothers. Why should we have a view, he said, it is a dispute over who gets the spoils, how do we come in?

Well, for one, I pointed out, it would make a welcome change from the party’s stance of dealing with issues that aren’t exactly contemporary – Bofors is over 23 years ago, and the Jinnah controversy older than even the Partition! A look at the country’s demographics should make it pretty obvious the number of people born after Partition is so large, Jinnah has less than zero recall value. As for Bofors, how long are you going to flog it?

But more important, look at the amounts involved and the people – it makes Bofors look like child’s play. There are allegations of favouritism, of a huge impact on the exchequer and, more important, a fight between a public sector company and India’s richest man – where the public relations advantage lies is pretty much of a no-brainer.

Anil Ambani’s calculations of the profits Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will make or how miniscule the government’s share will be may be off the mark, but that’s not the point. Forget whether Mukesh Ambani earns more or Anil Ambani earns less and how much this amount is. Concentrate on the fact that RIL won a contract with NTPC to supply it a certain amount of gas and then refused to supply it. The government, instead of forcing RIL to honour its commitment, has bent over backwards to try and scuttle NTPC’s case arguing the deal was never completed and, on another occasion, that RIL did not have the mandate to even participate in the NTPC tender since it had not asked for the government’s prior permission. Just imagine, I asked my friend, the impact of the BJP going to town with this – the public sector company that is responsible for some of the cheapest power in the country is not getting the fuel it needs to supply more; and the reason for this is the government wants to side with the country’s richest man. It has taken Anil Ambani’s public shaming of the government for the latter to even constitute a group to look into the matter and make assurances that it will take action to protect NTPC’s interests – it has been several days already, though, and there is no sign of  this action being concretized. Just imagine what an Arun Jaitley, the party’s great new hope, at least according to himself, could do with this.

Or consider the stuff about RIL’s capex for the KG Basin. In this case, after Anil Ambani came out with his ads alleging huge padding of costs, the government went into overdrive to debunk these claims – the higher the capex, the less the share of profits that the government gets from the KG Basin gas. The Director General of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons came out with his defence – he said independent experts had been consulted on the matter and that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had already audited the data. Turns out, thanks to Anil Ambani’s sleuthing, the two independent experts had some links with RIL. And, far more damaging, the CAG said it had never audited the RIL data since it never had access to its balance sheets. It’s possible there’s nothing wrong with RIL’s capex costs, but just imagine what a clever lawyer, leave alone one of the caliber of Arun Jaitley, could do with the obvious gaps in the DGH’s statements on the matter.

I think it is a good idea, especially for those who vote BJP, to send in email asking for an invite to the formal burial of the BJP. You can then move on instead of having to wait forever for the comatose party to revive.