The tussle between Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani and his brother, Reliance Industries vice chairman and managing director Anil Ambani, took a curious turn after a television channel reported that the Mukesh Ambani side had raised questions about Anil Ambani's attempt to participate in the privatisation of airports, his move to float a foundation called the Manke Foundation and his nomination to the Rajya Sabha.

A senior Reliance group official confirmed that Mukesh Ambani had concerns about all three matters but said that he had discussed them with his brother before a key July 2004 board meeting where Mukesh Ambani got single point responsibility for financial and investment decisions.

The Reliance 'ownership issue'

"Mukesh Ambani did not give this information to the media today. I don't know who has," he said. The senior executive implied that the Anil Ambani camp could have raised these questions as a preemptive measure -- perhaps one measure of the lows to which the relationship between the two sides has sunk.

While sources close to Anil Ambani were unavailable for comment, the television channel said that the Anil Ambani side's reply to these questions was that the airport privatisation did not involve Reliance money and so the board did not have to be informed of this, that no proposal for the foundation ever reached the board and that the younger Ambani had issued a press release when he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha and so told the whole world about his nomination.

Where, then, did the question of his having to inform the Reliance Industries board arise?