Tony Jesudasan, the corporate lobbyist who shunned limelight

Anthony (Tony) Jesudasan, who passed away early on Monday morning (February 20), was a quintessential public relations man from the old school. The group president for corporate communications and corporate affairs of R-ADAG – the Anil Ambani group of Reliance – knew almost everyone who mattered in the corridors of power, but he kept himself away from the public eye.

A man, with a perpetual smile on his face, Tony, or TJ as he was known, was the “chief troubleshooter and ace spinmaster of the Anil Ambani establishment,” as an Economic Times report described him.

USIS chief

An MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) at Delhi University’s North Campus, Jesudasan came to be known in media circles in the late 1980s when he became the chief of United States Information Service (USIS) in Delhi, a part of US Embassy. It is here that he made his initial connections with mediapersons from across newspapers; arranging a trip to the United States was one of the ways to strengthen the relationship.

Also read: Reliance group’s Tony Jesudasan dies at 71

In 1990, he was invited by Dhirubhai Ambani to join the Reliance Group. He soon entered the inner circle of the group, mainly handling media relations. Over the course of time, he knew most editors and senior journalists on a first-name basis.

Going with Anil Ambani

When the two Ambani brothers split in mid-2000s, Jesudasan chose to go with the younger brother, Anil Ambani. That was the time when the two Ambani brothers were involved in a very public fight. Jesudasan was among the top aides of Anil Ambani at that crucial juncture.

Though the fight was splashed all over the media for a long time, he managed to remain away from the spotlight even though he was the one of the main lobbyist behind the Anil Ambani group. He reportedly passed information written on plain A-4 sheets.

His style was quite in contrast with Niira Radia, who was looking after Mukesh Ambani group’s interests. While she attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies, Jesudasan went under the radar.

Understated

Late Vinod Mehta, in his book Editor Unplugged: Media, Magnates, Netas and Me, explains the difference between the two succinctly while discussing the Radia case tapes, which were released by Outlook, the magazine Mehta edited: “Anil Ambani, and this is the worst-kept secret in town, has Tony Jesudasan. I would rate him among the best lobbyists in the country. No editor or minister or socialite or intelligence chief is not on good terms with him. Tony does people ‘favours’. Needless to say, he is a man. He does all the things that Niira Radia did, and more. And he never gets into trouble or hits the headlines.”

And then, within brackets, he says: “(To be fair, Tony is a nice guy.)”

It is not that he did not become the target of opposing corporate interests, but not much stuck on him. There was a time when rumours were rife that he was a CIA man – his earlier job with the USIS was forwarded as proof. Many media houses were fed with his so-called ‘nefarious involvement’. A couple of MPs reportedly wrote to the PMO, referring to this information. But two of such letters turned out to be forgeries and with that the issue died.

Also read: I-T dept charges Anil Ambani with holding secret funds in 2 Swiss bank accounts

His name also figured in the infamous ‘diaries’ of former CBI chief Ranjit Sinha, but again nothing much came out of the investigations that were held subsequently by government agencies.

Pegasus list

It was no wonder than that when the Pegasus case hit the news in 2021, along with the younger Ambani sibling, his phone number too figured in the so-called Pegasus list. “His (Mr Jesudasan’s) number was added at the same time as (Anil) Ambani’s. A number used by Mr Jesudasan’s wife is also on the list,” the media consortium’s investigative report said.

Tony Jesudasan was high up in the dog-bite-dog world of corporate lobbying; he wouldn’t have reached such a position if he was not a hard-as-nails professional. But the difference is, he did it in an underwhelming way, eschewing the brashness that his line of business is usually associated with.