One Rupee, Piramal Finance, and the Ruins of DHFL: A Letter to Mr. Ajay Piramal
One Rupee, Piramal Finance, and the Ruins of DHFL: A Letter to Mr. Ajay Piramal Posted on 9th January, 2026 (GMT 03:55 hrs) ABSTRACT This open letter to Ajay Piramal interrogates the moral dissonance between Piramal Finance’s “Neeyat” advertising campaign, which celebrates honesty through the return of a single rupee, and the lived reality of DHFL depositors whose life savings were erased through a deeply contested insolvency process. By juxtaposing corporate virtue-signalling with the transfer of nearly ₹45,000 crore of DHFL assets for ₹1, the text argues that legality has been deployed to eclipse legitimacy, and branding to obscure accountability. Situating the DHFL resolution within a wider system of crony capitalism, opaque political financing, captured institutions, and manufactured consent, the letter frames the episode as part of a broader legitimation crisis in BJP-ruled India, where ethics are subordinated to power and proximity. At its core, the piece demands that ...