Reliance Swindling Corporation

This Independence Day brought me a symbolic ‘gift’. The fact that it came from Reliance Life Insurance Corporation adds a peculiar irony to the ‘gift’.

Back in the heyday of my life in Delhi, I received a phone call offering me a “single premium life insurance policy” from Reliance. I had to pay ₹ 50,000 just once and would go on to enjoy a whole lot of “long term benefits”. I leaped at the opportunity as the promises were lucrative enough. The agent rushed to my residence and the paper works were completed hastily.

However, when I received the policy certificate I realised I was cheated. It was not a single premium policy at all. My subsequent personal conversations with the staff in the Reliance office (which kept shifting from place to place in Delhi almost every month like a fugitive) made me realise that the office and its agents played tricks on potential clients to foist misleading insurance policies on the latter. I was already trapped and had no choice but carry on paying the substantial premium for three years at least after which the policy would be considered “paid-up.” Then I could surrender it without loss after five years.

I did precisely that: paid the premium for 3 years consecutively. When the stipulated 5 years passed I went to surrender the policy only to be told that I would not get even ₹ 1 lakh back though I had paid ₹ 1.5 lakh to the company. I was advised to wait until the stock markets rose since the policy was linked to the market. Wait I did.

But the surrender value stubbornly hovered around ₹ 1 lakh. I continued to wait patiently. But the Reliance Corporation lost its patience and a few days back they sent me a cheque for ₹ 107583.55. Add the interest to the loss of my capital, and I have lost about ₹ 1 lakh to Reliance. That is my Independence Day ‘gift’ this time.

I sent the following mail to Reliance Insurance.

They promptly responded with the usual jargon, part of which is given below.

The reply is much, much longer than that, of course. The rest of it is merely infantile information like how I should fulfil KYC norms, etc by contacting their “nearest” branch. I did contact the nearest branch only to be told that my policy was “foreclosed” (jargon, again) and hence nothing more could be done about it. The case is closed, in short, and I have no more say in the matter unless I choose to challenge it in the court.

Their claim that they tried to contact is utter falsehood. My phone shows no missed calls. Everything is as false as that when it comes to Reliance, I'm convinced. 

Exactly a year after Mr Modi came to power at the Centre, I lost my job in Delhi as my school was shut down by a godman who bought the campus and converted it into parking space for his rich devotees. Ever since that tragedy, I witnessed various instances of chicanery perpetrated by the prevalent political system in the country. Eventually I got used to that chicanery. I have now got used to a whole assortment of evils and vices that have come to dominate the country’s political dispensation. Lynching, assaults, rapes and murders have ceased to shock me. Lies have begun to amuse me. The Rafale scam is just a tip of the humongous iceberg of corruption that is eating up the country at various levels including in the mass media.

I live in a new India. I know I should be prepared to lose a lot more.