The Polyster Price

even be plotted on a graph of the Reliance share price, which began rising steadily from July 1990. The government was distracted by its numerous splits and battles. The customs cases had been successfully bogged down by petitions seeking a stay of proceedings in the Delhi High Court. It was clear that further legal appeals could delay a final judgement for a decade or more. Aides like Vinod Pande, who pressed V P Singh to make a concerted effort to expose and tame Reliance while he had the chance, found the prime minister abstracted and diffident. Dhirubhai had also won over a crucial supporter of the government, the Marxist chief minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu, by announcing plans for a big new polyester factory in his state under a newly created subsidiary called Reliance Bengal.

Although it was obliged to report mounting contingent liabil- ities over its customs and excise cases, Reliance was climbing back shakily from its setback of 1986 and 1987 as the Indian economy raced into high growth under pressure of big government deficit spending and raised imports financed by borrowing. After the 18-month 'year' of 198788, Reliance had had a nine-month year for 1988-89 (july-March) in which net profit of Rs 793.7 million was reported. In September 1990, Dhirubhai convened shareholders at a Bombay auditorium for his annual meeting. The profit for the 12 months of 1989-90 (April-March) was Rs 905 million, a drop of nearly 15 per cent in annualised terms, but due to the provision of Rs 440 million for the flood damage at Patalganga.

The meeting saw Dhirubhai paint his big pictures again. But for the first time, he faced hostile interjectors and heckling. Shareholders complaining about the recent lack of bonus share issues, and shouting charges of financial wrongdoing by the management, pressed towards the podium, which was soon full of security guards ringing the directors.

The pandemonium forced an adjournment.

In September, as it became more obvious that Singh was losing support, Chandrashekhar began mustering support for a revolt within Janata Dal, and making overtures to Rajiv Gandhi's Congress Party. By early October, nearly 30 of the party's MPs were listed as disaffected in newspaper reports. On 23 October, the Janata Dal state government in Bihar stopped the BJP leader Advani's own march on Ayodhya, and the BJP immediately withdrew support from V P Singh's government. The BJP con- tinued to send thousands of devotees into Ayodhya, culminating over 30 October-2 November in a suicidal assault