Humble Jamnagar dominated headlines and airtime this week. The visit by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ambassador Sergio Gor to the Reliance refinery township painted on the political radar screen and stood out in domestic debate.
That they were hosted by the Ambanis became a key talking point. Why are the Americans taking such interest in Indian refining? Why are they asking the Ambanis to buy Venezuelan oil? Why are they calling India a refining superpower and asking us to increase capacities? Or to sum up, why were Rubio and Gor in Jamnagar and not in Delhi or Bengaluru as visiting dignitaries did in the past?
Go back to the UPA era. There was zero controversy over Western heads of state being shown around the Infosys or other tech campuses. The reaction was unanimous: national pride. This also cut across political divides. Even the Left put its anti-corporate instincts aside.
Why, then, are we now seeing such suspicion, scepticism, even paranoia?
Why are the Ambanis (and India) being forced to buy oil from the most distant point possible (Venezuela) when Russia is so much closer? Of course, it must be arm-twisting to sell Venezuelan oil the Americans control, and a ploy to wean us away from Russia to squeeze Putin.
None of this passes the most cursory fact-check, but why let that confuse you out of a delicious outrage. India’s crude purchases from Russia haven’t dramatically declined and are unlikely to. To call India a refining superpower isn’t just a great compliment, but also reminds us of a marvellous new element in our Comprehensive National Power (CNP). Late Dhirubhai Ambani’s foresight has given his nation a workaround for the curse of not having energy resources.
What does a nation of our size do when it’s blessed with almost no hydrocarbons? It starts refining at a global scale what others pump out of their soil or seabed. Without refining, crude is nothing. The global refining capacities were not keeping pace with rising energy consumption. India filled in that gap. The Ambani foresight also lies in recognising the peculiar Venezuelan heavy crude challenge, and opportunity.
If this made India a refining superpower, isn’t that something to be as proud of as tech and outsourcing in Bengaluru?
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Let’s understand some realities. Today, the American need for global refining capacities, especially for the waxy Venezuelan crude, is strategic, political and economic—in that order.
Strategic, because the Americans have just forced a regime change in Venezuela, which holds the largest crude reserves in the world. They have to consummate their success commercially as they set about redesigning the Western hemisphere to align with their interests. India has no dog in that fight.
Politically, more crude in global markets moderates prices. The Iran situation isn’t settling down. If anything, it might get worse after the US midterms.
And economically, the US gets a commercial take or cut in Venezuelan crude sales. And the more refined products come into global markets, the more fuel prices in the US decline.
It may be too late for the midterms now. But in the American system, jockeying for the next presidential election begins just after the midterms, especially if the incumbent is finishing the second term. The Republicans, not exactly topping the charts at this point, want inflation, and gasoline prices to go down.
This needs more crude, and more refining. America is among the largest importers of Venezuelan oil. But over the past decades, many of its heavy-crude refineries shut down as its economy moved to the softer, wealthier and less resource-dependent avenues: tech, finance, rocketry and now AI. Generally, you can say, as Texas, Detroit and the rust belt have yielded to Silicon Valley, Seattle and New York.
In this situation, which country can play refiner to the world but India? Europe has minimal refining capacity that survived its Greta Thunbergs. West Asia wouldn’t dare expand while there’s the Iranian threat and its proxies stalk the peninsula with ballistic missiles and drones.
It’s been said often that if Bengaluru were to suffer a catastrophic power or internet outage, a lot of the world would come to a standstill. If that’s leverage, an element in our CNP, why shouldn’t refining be so? India should, if anything, add more refineries, and at scale. Even Reliance should build another Jamnagar, preferably along the eastern seaboard. Some of these could be built in conjunction with Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).
The fears come from all sides. The Left, you’d expect. But also the Right and the Centre. That is, if you could describe today’s Congress as centrist, though I’d think their current Left tilt is for product-differentiation rather than a de-canonisation of Manmohan Singh.
The Right is also bemused. Why America? And why the Ambanis? It doesn’t even matter to them that Rubio also met N. Chandrasekaran of Tata Sons and Gautam Adani. Because then, why only the oligarchs?
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Broadly, all are knee-jerked because of the twin factor of America and Ambani. Anti-Americanism is chronic, deep and instinctive in India. If America suggests you do something, or says thank-you for doing it, be very afraid. Hide. There must be a terrifying hidden motive. This cuts across party-lines and the BJP or its base isn’t immune either. Add to this that oldest Indian fear, even contempt for the “evil corporate”.
In the Nehru-Indira era “Birla-Tata” was a cuss word. Now, it’s “Ambani-Adani”. After all, that’s what the socialist brainwashing from our politics, literature and movies scarred us with. The standout line that conditioned generations comes from Dilip Kumar in the 1957 Naya Daur on behalf of labour, saying: “jhagda toh haath aur machine ka hai (it’s a tussle between human labour and machinery).” The capitalist has rarely been portrayed even as a half-decent character in our popular culture.
Flip the card. Aren’t we so happy when our prime ministers, even chief ministers, visit the US, Japan, France with key industrial plants and tech campuses on their itinerary? Or when PM Narendra Modi goes to meet Mark Zuckerberg at Menlo Park, invites Elon Musk, kids and all, for a private meeting, and generously meets visiting CEOs?
As for the Congress, they should remember how Rajiv Gandhi brought the tech revolution to India. On his first visit to the US in June 1985, he reached out to Mark Shepherd Jr of Texas Instruments and persuaded him to set up his offshore unit in Bengaluru. Subsequently, he invited Jack Welch of GE. Welch was told that if he wanted India to buy his engines, he must buy software from our companies. Wipro and GE set up a joint venture. Some detail on how GE was wooed by Sam Pitroda, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Jairam Ramesh is found in DLF founder K.P. Singh’s sequel memoir ‘Why the Heck Not?’
We undermine our national interest first, by not shedding our permanent anti-Americanism, still rooted in 1971. And second, by dismissing our entrepreneurs as exploiters, not builders of India. The first needs to be seen in the perspective of the day. Nations relate to each other after weighing self-interest and not protocol. In any case, what’s protocol in Trump’s times? And a society that doesn’t respect its own entrepreneurial successes is condemned to falling behind.
The only thing wrong with the fact that India has the Ambanis, Tatas, Adanis, Birlas, Jindals and Bhartis is that there are so few of them. India needs some more. Let them build more refineries, steel plants, smelt copper and aluminium for the world, write software, build Global Capability Centres (GCCs), set up power plants. India has to learn to celebrate its entrepreneurs. Jamnagar is only a symbol and reminder of what India can become.
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One more addition – George Fernandes and his son – an investment banker in new york 🤑🤑 just imagine. Hard socialist father and pure capitalist son this should be highlighted as well he later become right wing and joined the BJP due to anti congress and anti Indira political era .. and later became defence minister but he let his own son become an American and a wall street banker .. such hypocrisy and still has the moral authority to criticise Capitalism.. imposing his values on his son is not what I mean but don’t act fool and know it all, just because fooling poor for power and at the same time sending your son to america is contradictory. And sham politics of socialists both right and left wing socialists
We do not need so many Jamnagars to please Americans as suggested by Shekhar Gupta. Our dear Shekhar who has pathological dislike for Russians, suggesting Russian type of crony capitalism, Modi’s India is already a crony capitalist state.
We need to develop our manufacturing sector in India. If we look into multi national corporations in India, sadly most of them are trading house. This must change. We do not need any more Adanis and Ambabanis who are wasting our capital. We need hundreds of thousands of businesses who would develop manufacturing sector in India
Indian PM is just a Gujarati trader trading Commodities, Businesses and industry like steel cement oil mining ports airports,retail, FMCG, cool drinks, ice cream and telecom.
Where is research and development and focused manufacturing in our country. We don’t have any intellectual property rights on critical technology in semiconductor, railway engine, jet engines, naval and more. We won’t have our own ram, processor, Storage, GPU but we lead in IT and AI. We are consuming economy not creative economy.
Self reliance in such critical technology comes with sanctions, because if Russia willing to share we are not going to say no to it. We can’t live on mercy of West and allies.
Look at the sheer hypocrisy of the Indian Left elite:
Pinarayi Vijayan spends his entire life railing against “corporate greed” and private capital, yet his daughter Veena Vijayan builds private IT companies and rakes in corporate payouts. Sitaram Yechury built a career preaching against “Western imperialism” and privatized education, while his daughter Akhila Yechury got elite degrees at Cambridge and settled into an academic career in the UK. Jyoti Basu used militant unionism to gut Bengal’s industrial base and drive out private capital, while his son Chandan Basu ran private manufacturing businesses and real estate ventures under his father’s watch.
These people treat socialism as a pacifier for the masses while using global capitalism to secure their own lives. They sell stagnation and anger to working-class cadres to keep them poor, dependent, and controllable, all while lining up elite Western credentials, corporate access, and generational wealth for their own kids. It is a shameless, parasitic feudalism hiding behind red flags.
also search for George Fernandes and his son too. Add that with honesty
Shekhar is at his best in his National Interest. Who can argue on the logic of what he wrote? Also thanks to Shekhar for the storm he let loose on the left liberal Indian Muslims due to his tagging that article on Sharjeel Imam on his X account!!
One answer – the left has become anti India in its hatred of BJP. They don’t have any tactics because BJP outranks them in most factors. So what’s left ? Oppose what is good for the country.
Also left is become more stupider. You hate America then be better then them
Dear SG, Once again a great article from you! After a few lack-luster ones about CJP protests, etc. Yes, India does need more Jamnagars. It has to be an industrial power-house, nuclear power-house, manufacturing power-house, military power-house, space power-house and so on. India has to be a super-power so that the USAs, the China’s cannot play games with India again.
Private business for its part should be willing to invest more in R & D. Including Artificial Intelligence. Be more successful in capturing export markets as the South Korean chaebol did.
Indians love USA. Its E pluribus unum passport they would give their right hand for. At a people to people level, feelings for America were unfailingly warm even during the most difficult phases of the official relationship. American soft power worked very well in India. That too is coming under strain, most markedly in President Trump’s second term. MAGA is making the diaspora uncomfortable, feel unwelcome in a country to which they have contributed so much. Which self respecting Indian would not have been utterly revolted to see the plight of 150 Indians deported in a special flight, lasting more than 24 hours, handcuffed, legs in shackles, unable to use the toilet with dignity.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has his own aircraft. While travelling from Uzbekistan to India, he must have flown over – or close to – Delhi. The decorous, diplomatic thing to do would have been to visit the national capital, meet EAM, call on PM, a privilege not accorded to all foreign ministers, then proceed to Jamnagar for a substantive engagement with Reliance. No matter how it is spun, EAM travelling to Bombay, covering it up by meeting with UAE leaders – seems to be happening almost weekly nowadays – looked odd. Gave the opposition an opening which the Americans and the government should both have anticipated.
While agreeing with almost everything in the column, one small caveat. India needs more successful business houses. Undeniably so. It is just that it is becoming so deucedly difficult to create more of them. Tremendous concentration of business opportunities. That is leaving a lot of potential entrants to the top club out. Existing, storied groups, some a hundred years old, who have turned circumspect. Would explore options abroad. This is also observed by foreign firms that wish to set up or grow in India. Reflected in less FDI that India should be attracting at this stage of our development. .
Socialist India is a gone case. Move on.