For two successive days, newspaper readers across various cities have found themselves profusely thanked by Mukesh Ambani’s three children for making “India’s largest IPO possible” and for making Jio the second largest company in the country. On both days, with touching humility, the Ambani family has insisted that “jio aapne banaya.” Perhaps never before has capitalism pretended to have such a benign face.Admittedly, since the days of Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani—who is now referred to only as ‘Dhirubhai’—the family has always carefully crafted its message and curated its image because it did not feel it had to necessarily abide by the old rules set by old business families. It would devise its own guile and forge its own wile to beat the competition. And, the old man was not averse to creating his own friends and enemies.Now the third generation—Aakash, Isha and Anant – has rather sophisticatedly taken the game a notch higher. Preceding the Jio IPO listing, an advertisement blitz played with the popular mind, depicting average Indians in various professions, high and low, claiming “Jio maine banaya.” And, post-IPO listing, the Ambani siblings are asking India and Bharat to embrace ownership of the second biggest company in India—the very antithesis of the oligarch whom the other day Elon Musk was bad-mouthing. This Jio charm offensive would surely please Edward Bernays, author of the 1947 classic, The Engineering of Consent.Of course, this is not all that innocent a foray into the world of professional copy-writing. Make no mistake. The whole seduction game is staged with an eye to positioning the Ambani business empire over—and apart from—other corporate houses tainted with the stain of cronyism.Indeed, it can be argued that a popular endorsement is being sought for the ‘coronation’ of a new generation of the Ambanis. And, as per media reports, the three Ambanis took turns to reaffirm their faith and commitment to the Dhirubhai mantra of getting “ordinary Indian families to participate in the country’s prosperity as owners, not spectators.” Isha ben extravagantly added: “Different industries. Different decades. The same faith in India. And this is just the beginning.”Not to be left behind, her brother, Anant, chose to cast his company not as a profit-making enterprise, but as an instrument of public service. He serenaded the customers “whose lives the company had touched by connecting classrooms, families, patients and communities.” And, he added, “Jio aapne banaya”. And, then, the knock-out line: “To fulfil your dreams is our dream.” No populist, no demagogue, no public sevak could so effortlessly—and, so glibly—integrate retail investors into the family’s corporate ambitions.It has been suggested that the whole advertising extravaganza was organised to soothe the anxieties and doubts voiced in many quarters over the Jamnagar tableau, featuring US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Mukesh Ambani. It was probably the first time that a serving American secretary of state (who also happens to wear the national security adviser hat) did not care to call on the prime minister during a visit to India. Bad optics. Avoidable optics.The Jamnagar show not only confirmed Mukesh Ambani’s stature as the tallest Indian global businessman, it also carried with it the suggestion that perhaps he has become bigger than the Indian state—a man with his own global connections and global protection network. This is a perception that the very suave corporate house would want to do without. What the “Jio aapne banaya” tag-line does is divert attention away from the Jamnagar pageant and its lingering shadow.United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani during a visit to RIL’s Jamnagar Refinery Complex on October 21, 2026. Photo: Handout via PTI.The Jio spectacle also unwittingly served a larger purpose: to inject a sense of optimism in the national mood at a time when the collective sentiment has turned sour over the Modi government’s glaring under-performance on almost every front. The Mumbai corporate crowd has a pretty good idea of public disenchantment at large and of the sense of pessimism that is lurking around the corner; the canny captains of industry know that ordinary citizens, as consumers and as tax-payers, no longer have the same degree of trust and confidence in Prime Minister Narendra Modi as was the case ten years ago.The middle classes, especially those in the upper slice, have learned to derive solace and comfort from the competence and clout the Ambanis have come to wield. In his classic study of impulses and motives that drive consumer behaviour, The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard explains the rationale behind business campaigns that seek to win the confidence of the public’s collective mind by presenting a simple act of corporate expansion as something serving a higher purpose: “To fill the needs of a nation whose future is bright, and as an expression of absolute faith in economic growth.” Listen to Akash Ambani promising to make Jio Platforms “bigger, better and more meaningful for India.” Even the sanatani corner has been given the reason to feel elated as Anant Ambani pointedly compared the exchange bell at the IPO listing with the sacred bell-ringing in a temple; the young Ambani professed that business for him was puja.In these deeply troubled times when the country is bitterly divided, the Ambani siblings have sought to position themselves over the quarrelsomeness of the day. For this reason alone, it is both tempting and necessary to compare Akash, Isha and Anant with another set of young Indians, the self-styled ‘cockroaches.’ The three-some speak with the authority and responsibility of wealth; the other set invokes the anger and frustrations of the street—and, both seek to look beyond Narendra Modi and all the organised delinquencies he has come to symbolise. Amen.Harish Khare was editor-in-chief of The Tribune.