Behave responsibly while speaking on Rafale deal else face action, Anil Ambani's Reliance warns Congress

Anil Ambani had written to Rahul Gandhi saying that the Congress has been "misinformed, misdirected and misled" by "malicious vested interests and corporate rivals" on the Rafale deal issue.

NEW DELHI: Businessman Anil Ambani led Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Defence and Reliance Aerostructure has sent notices to Congress leaders asking them to behave responsibly while speaking on Rafale deal or face legal action. In a cease and desist notice addressed to Congress Spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill, Reliance said that freedom of expression of politicians does not mean that they have a license to behave irresponsibly to suit their interests.

"Freedom of expression and speech should not be mistaken as a license to behave irresponsibly and make false, frivolous, misleading and distorted statements to suit your political interest," the notice said.

Congress Spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill receives a cease & desist notice from Anil Ambani led Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Defence & Reliance Aerostructure asking him to restrain from speaking on Rafale, failing which he will face legal consequences. pic.twitter.com/9yAa2zUcnB — ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2018

Reliance named other Congress leaders viz Randeep Surjewala, Ashok Chavan, Sanjay Nirupam, Anugrah Narayan Singh. Oommen Chandy, Shaktisinh Gohil, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sunil Kumar Jakhar and Priyanka Chaturvedi saying that they have been indulging in making incorrect, false, frivolous statements against Reliance. 

The notice alleged that Congress leaders are indulging in what appears to be a "vilification campaign" to "deliberately besmirch" the name and reputation of the company for "petty personal and political gains". 

Warning the party members against making such statements, the Reliance group said that it reserves right to take legal recourse for the "protection of their name, brand, reputation and goodwill in case of any scurrilous statements being made against them". 

Reacting to the notice, Jaiveer Shergill said such notices cannot scare him away. "Received “Cease & Desist” Notice from Sh Anil Ambani threatening me with legal consequences if I speak on #RafaleDeal; My reply-I’m a Congress Soldier, a Proud Punjabi who doesn’t get scared with such notices-Tax Payer of this country deserves to know why they paid extra 42000 Cr," he tweeted on Wednesday.

Received “Cease & Desist” Notice from Sh Anil Ambani threatening me with legal consequences if I speak on #RafaleDeal; My reply-I’m a Congress Soldier, a Proud Punjabi who doesn’t get scared with such notices-Tax Payer of this country deserves to know why they paid extra 42000 Cr — Jaiveer Shergill (@JaiveerShergill) August 22, 2018

Anil Ambani had recently written to Congress president Rahul Gandhi on the Rafale fighter jet deal saying his party has been "misinformed, misdirected and misled" by "malicious vested interests and corporate rivals" on the issue. 

Congress led by Rahul has been attacking the government for inking the Rafale deal claiming that the contract was signed at a much higher price than the one the previous UPA regime had negotiated. While Rahul has accused the government of changing the deal to benefit "one businessman", his party has demanded a JPC probe into the deal.