Govt rebuts Kejriwal's RIL allegations

A day after Arvind Kejriwal accused the government of showing favoritism towards Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the Centre on Thursday strongly rebutted all allegations saying the decisions were taken objectively without fear or favour. HT reports.

A day after Arvind Kejriwal accused the government of showing favoritism towards Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the Centre on Thursday strongly rebutted all allegations saying the decisions were taken objectively without fear or favour.

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Terming the allegations levelled by India Against Corruption (IAC) as "baseless and frivolous," the petroleum ministry in a six-page statement said the Congress-led UPA 1 and UPA 2 governments under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have been "consistently protecting the national interest" and that it had way back in 2010 even rejected RIL's demand for a revision in gas price.

"The ministry is committed to upholding the rule of law and the decisions are taken objectively without any fear or favour," the petroleum ministry said in a point-by-point rebuttal to allegations levelled by Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan on Wednesday.

The ministry said under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) approved by the Government in 1997 and implemented by the BJP-led NDA government in 1999, areas like KG-D6 were offered for exploration through open international competitive bidding.