Accusing Petroleum Minister Murli Deora of "utter negligence and incapacity", senior BJP leader Ram Naik today said Prime Minister Manmohan should intervene in the Ambani brothers' gas dispute ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on the RIL-RNRL case on September 1.
"The government can still retrieve the situation. The Prime Minister should go to the Supreme Court with a neutral and integrated view," Naik, who was Petroleum Minister in the NDA government, said in New Delhi.
Had the government intervened at the right time, the controversy over an MoU that provides for dividing a national resource, would not have arisen, he said.
"Murli Deora has not handled the ministry with the care with which it should have been done," Naik said, adding that "utter negligence and incapacity" and a lack of leadership in the government with respect to the oil sector was harming the interests of India.
"The issue is not whether Mukesh (Ambani) wins or Anil (Ambani) wins. The issue is public interest and that's why the government should intervene," he said.
Naik said the Anil Ambani group's ad campaign in national newspapers against the petroleum ministry "reflected the state of happenings in the ministry".
The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group had plastered nearly every national daily with ads accusing the Ministry of siding with Reliance Industries Ltd.
Naik had also written to the Prime Minister last month seeking his personal indulgence against the transfer of more than one-third of peak output from RIL's KG D6 fields to Anil's RNRL at a fixed price for 17 years.
He wanted Singh to re-establish the sanctity of the Production Sharing Contract it has entered into with explorers.
It was Naik who initiated the landmark New Exploration Licensing Policy that opened up oil and gas hunt to private and foreign investments.
"It (the gas dispute) won't affect (investment prospects of) NELP VIII, but certainly some doubts would be created in the minds of foreign investors," Naik said.
RIL and Anil Ambani-led Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) have been embroiled in a legal battle since 2007 over supply of gas from the former's KG basin block.
The Bombay high court, in its verdict on June 15, had asked RIL to supply 28 million units of gas to RNRL at $2.34 per mmBtu for 17 years.
RIL, which approached the Supreme Court challenging the high court verdict, said that it would sell gas at the government-approved price of $4.20 per mmBtu.
