The news that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided Anil Ambani’s residence and corporate offices in late August 2025 sent shockwaves through the business and political establishment. For decades, Anil Ambani was not just a prominent industrialist but also a vocal supporter of Narendra Modi, famously being among the first in corporate India to declare Modi as the inevitable prime ministerial candidate in 2014. He was seen as politically protected, even after the spectacular collapse of Reliance Communications (RCom), ballooning debts, and repeated allegations of loan fraud. Despite being accused in multiple bank scams, he remained untouched – until now.

The drama does not stop with Anil. Almost simultaneously, the Supreme Court ordered the formation of a Special Investigation Team, headed by Justice Jasti Chelameswar, to investigate Vantara — the sprawling wildlife sanctuary and rehabilitation project developed under Mukesh Ambani’s patronage. This intervention followed petitions and global media reports alleging illegal import of exotic animals and irregularities in land use and regulatory approvals. The SIT has been tasked with delivering a comprehensive report, marking a rare occasion when India’s most powerful corporate family has been subjected to judicially supervised scrutiny.

These developments are remarkable not only for their timing but also for their symbolism. For years, both Ambani brothers epitomised the tight embrace between Indian big capital and political power. Modi’s critics often accused his government of practising “crony capitalism,” alleging sweetheart deals and policy favours benefiting corporate giants. Yet, the very fact that the 'system' has now moved against the Ambanis — albeit in different ways — demands careful interpretation.

The Ambani-Modi nexus

At the 2013 Vibrant Gujarat Summit, Anil Ambani offered one of the earliest corporate coronations of Narendra Modi. He likened Modi to Gandhi, Patel and Arjuna, hailed him as a “king among kings”, and invoked Dhirubhai Ambani’s prophecy that Modi was “destined to be PM.” Ambani even corrected himself mid-speech — calling Modi the “next chief executive of India.” Before an audience of tycoons and diplomats, this was no casual praise but a deliberate projection of Modi’s national ascendancy, crystallising corporate India’s early endorsement of his journey from Gandhinagar to New Delhi.

In 2012, the UPA was negotiating to buy 126 Rafale jets, with 18 in flyaway condition and 108 to be manufactured in India by HAL under a transfer-of-technology arrangement. This was overturned in 2016 when Modi sealed a new deal for only 36 jets, all flyaway, eliminating the scope for indigenous production. Controversy erupted over the offset clause, as Dassault chose Anil Ambani’s newly incorporated Reliance Defence — just 12 days old when Modi announced the deal — as a key partner, sidelining the vastly experienced HAL. Critics, led by Rahul Gandhi, alleged Modi had “changed the deal” to funnel contracts worth Rs 30,000 crore to Ambani’s debt-ridden firm with no record in aerospace.

The government and Dassault claimed the offset choice was commercial, while Reliance argued HAL’s exclusion was inevitable given the revised flyaway arrangement. In 2018, the Supreme Court cleared the government, though its verdict drew flak for factual errors. The CAG later reported that while the new deal was marginally cheaper than UPA’s, the government had violated procurement norms and paid heavily for India-specific enhancements, reinforcing suspicions of cronyism.

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group exemplifies how political proximity can shield corporate empires even amid staggering financial scandals. Between 2016-19, Reliance Mutual Fund parked Rs 21.5 billion in Yes Bank’s AT-1 bonds, later written off after the bank’s collapse. SEBI’s probe suggested this was tied to loans Yes Bank had extended to Ambani companies in a quid pro quo arrangement. The regulator rejected Ambani’s settlement pleas and passed its findings to the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Around the same time, the ED arrested a managing director of an Odisha firm in a Rs 17,000-crore loan fraud case involving fake guarantees linked to Ambani group entities, including a dubious SECI tender guarantee. Yet Ambani himself has remained untouched, reinforcing suspicions of selective enforcement.

The Yes Bank case is telling. Rana Kapoor was jailed for lending in exchange for kickbacks, with the Anil Ambani Group emerging as the largest beneficiary of Rs 12,800 crore in loans that turned into NPAs. Two senior Reliance executives were arrested, but Anil Ambani, despite repeated questioning, was neither chargesheeted nor arrested, with courts even granting him protection. Investigators cite lack of direct evidence, but the optics of subordinates jailed while the chairman remains immune deepen public cynicism. Together, these episodes suggest a pattern: political patronage, business favours and regulatory indulgence, with accountability enforced only when the state deems inaction too costly.

From Modi’s tenure in Gujarat to his decade in Delhi, Reliance Industries consistently reaped strategic advantages. In Gujarat, Modi’s government extended land and infrastructure concessions, with the CAG later noting how Reliance benefited when GSPC bore the costly upkeep of its Krishna–Godavari offshore platform. In telecom, Jio’s 2016 entry was turbocharged by regulatory shifts — TRAI’s slashing of interconnection charges and punitive action against competitors — while Modi’s image in Jio’s launch ads signalled overt political blessing. Following criticism, the government told Parliament it had not given permission for the use of the photo and that Jio had apologised for the ‘inadvertent mistake’. These alignments coincided with Mukesh Ambani’s wealth more than doubling by 2019 and Reliance’s expansion into digital and energy frontiers. Modi also bolstered Reliance’s global credibility, with Jio Platforms attracting $13 billion in investments from Meta, Google, and others. Even geopolitically, Reliance was a major beneficiary of the Modi government's decision to buy Russian oil, a situation US administration representattives like Pete Navarro are now speaking openly about. In sum, Modi’s political project and Ambani’s corporate empire have advanced in lockstep.

The case against Anil Ambani

The CBI’s raids were part of a broader investigation into massive bank frauds allegedly committed by Anil Ambani’s group companies, particularly Reliance Communications. The State Bank of India and other lenders had declared loans to RCom as fraudulent, alleging diversion of funds through shell companies, inflated guarantees, and misuse of credit lines. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier issued look-out circulars and frozen certain assets in related probes.

Reports suggest that the fraud amounts run into thousands of crores. In one case alone, diversion of over Rs 3,000 crore was flagged. In another, the exposure of banks to RCom’s bad loans was put at more than Rs 17,000 crore. For years, despite such staggering numbers, the enforcement machinery remained inactive. That it has chosen now to act reflects either a sudden change in priorities—or a deliberate political strategy.

The perception of special favours to Anil Ambani rests on his early endorsement of Modi, the Rafale offsets, Yes Bank leniency, and earlier land and telecom advantages. Each was legally defended, yet collectively they reinforced the optics of cronyism. These episodes point to the enduring nexus between corporate power and political authority in India—a systemic feature rather than a regime-specific aberration.

Vantara: Mukesh Ambani under the scanner

If Anil Ambani’s troubles are rooted in financial improprieties, Mukesh Ambani’s challenges are reputational and regulatory. Vantara, presented as one of the largest private wildlife rescue and rehabilitation projects in the world, has been showcased as a symbol of corporate philanthropy. Spread across thousands of acres in Gujarat, it houses a vast collection of exotic animals, including elephants, lions, and giraffes. Launched in 2024 by Reliance Industries and the Reliance Foundation, Vantara was presented as a philanthropic effort for the rehabilitation of endangered and abused animals.

Investigative reports in international media alleged that many animals had been imported under dubious circumstances, with irregularities in permits and violations of India’s wildlife laws. Petitions filed in the Supreme Court brought these concerns to the fore, prompting the judiciary to act. By appointing a committee headed by Justice Chelameswar, the court ensured the matter would not be brushed aside as a routine regulatory issue. For Mukesh Ambani, whose conglomerate is India’s largest and most globally exposed, the probe carries both reputational and political risks.

Modi’s political strategy in a nutshell

Modi today finds himself besieged by multiple crises, both external and domestic. His much-touted personalised diplomacy with the United States has collapsed, culminating in repeated humiliations at the hands of Donald Trump, whom Modi once publicly flaunted as his personal friend. The imposition of punitive tariffs and penal interest now threatens to hit India’s economy hard. At home, the united opposition has mounted an unprecedented offensive, forcefully exposing what they describe as vote chori in the elections—an accusation that strikes directly at the legitimacy of Modi’s rule. In such a precarious moment, Modi urgently needs a diversionary narrative that can wrest public attention away from these accumulating blows.

What could be a more forceful shift in the narrative than demonstrating that he can act against his own cronies? The raids on Anil Ambani and the judicial inquiry into Mukesh Ambani’s Vantara project (that the Modi government's lawyers chose not to contest) appear to serve precisely this purpose. Anil Ambani, who has little political utility left, can be subjected to humiliation without cost to Modi. Mukesh Ambani, on the other hand, remains a visible crony and personal friend of Modi's. Yet, the beauty of the Vantara episode lies in its ambiguity: although the case is not substantively directed against the Ambanis, it is widely perceived as such. This perception is the very strategy—allowing Modi to project that he can stand up even to the richest man in India, his own ally, and thereby send a message both to the Indian public and the international community that “India has the rule of law.”

The political calculation is clear. Modi wants to reframe himself as a leader who rises above crony capitalism, capable of letting the law run its course even when it touches his closest friends. For a leader whose regime has been synonymous with the capture of state policy by big business, the optics of “taking on Ambani” can be invaluable. Yet, this is no guarantee that the move will translate into lasting political gains. The raid or investigation might not lead to conviction, and the spectacle might soon be exposed as little more than theatre.

More importantly, the opposition’s renewed unity and their sharp focus on the fundamental question of Modi’s democratic legitimacy – his alleged theft of the people’s vote – has given them a narrative that cuts deeper than diversionary spectacles. Unlike earlier occasions, when Modi successfully shifted the political discourse through sudden diversions, this time the opposition has found a language that resonates with the public as a matter of life and death for Indian democracy. It is here that Modi’s strategy may falter, revealing the limits of spectacle when confronted with a determined and united opposition.

Anand Teltumbde is former CEO of PIL, professor, IIT Kharagpur, and GIM, Goa. He is also a writer and civil rights activist.

This article went live on September tenth, two thousand twenty five, at thirty-seven minutes past four in the afternoon.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.