New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, August 31, once again targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged association with billionaire Gautam Adani, whose conglomerate has once again come under a cloud after a new investigation disclosed details of its offshore operations that could run foul of Indian regulations.
Gandhi, who is in Mumbai for the two-day meeting of the opposition INDIA bloc, addressed the media and accused the Modi government of protecting Adani and his company. He renewed the demand for a joint parliamentary probe into the Adani Group.
Reading out headlines of two global newspapers that published the new allegations, Gandhi asked why the Union government and Modi are “shying away” from probing these “serious allegations” against Adani and his brother Vinod Adani.
The new allegations – published by UK newspapers The Guardian and Financial Times – are based on documents obtained by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). The thrust of the reports is that Adani family partners used “opaque funds via Mauritius” to invest in its own group stocks, in violation of Indian regulations.
Also Read: Documents Suggest Adani Family Associates May Have Bought Shares to Fuel Group’s Growth: Reports
The Adani Group has rubbished the “recycled” allegations as an attempt to revive “meritless” accusations made by the US-based short seller Hindenburg Research, which accused it of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud” in January this year.
“The recent investigations by the newspapers have identified two persons, Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli from the United Arab Emirates and Chang Chung-Ling from Taiwan … They are both foreign nationals. Why are they allowed to play a role in this? Adani’s company handles infrastructure, airports, ports in India. What are these two foreign nationals, especially a Chinese man, doing here?” Gandhi asked.
Gandhi added that when foreign leaders travel to India to participate in the G20 summit, the most pertinent question each of them could ask is about Modi’s reasons for “shielding” Adani. “They ought to ask why is our prime minister protecting Adani. What is this special company and why is it getting a free-ride in India?”
“The SEBI [market regulator] official who was in charge of investigating Adani’s company is today a director of NDTV, a media channel that Adani owns.”
This reference by Gandhi was about Upendra Kumar Sinha, who was head of SEBI in 2014, when according to The Guardian, he was alerted about “indications that [Adani-linked] money may have found its way to stock markets in India as investment and disinvestment in the Adani Group”. At the time, SEBI was “understood to be investigating into the dealings of the Adani Group of companies in the stock market” but after Modi was elected in May 2014, SEBI’s “apparent interest seemed to disappear”.
Sinha was in March this year appointed as an independent director of NDTV, which the Adani Group acquired last year.
Gandhi continued, “There is no level playing field in India. Adani can just about buy anything that he wishes. Be it the Dharavi project or any airport, Adani can simply take over anything in the country. One man is able to buy whatever asset he wishes. He is accused of wrongdoings. One billion dollars have definitely been moved out of India and brought back to India from suspicious channels and the PM is duty-bound to find where the money is.”
“Each time I speak about Adani, Modi gets restless. The last time I spoke, my parliament membership was revoked. When the party panics, it resorts to such extreme steps,” Gandhi said, speaking about the special session of parliament called by the government on Thursday from September 18.
After the Hindenburg report was released, the opposition demanded a joint parliamentary probe into the allegations. While the government did not discuss the demand, Gandhi was convicted in a defamation case soon after he raised the issue in parliament and was given the maximum sentence – which led to his disqualification as a member of the Lok Sabha.
The conviction has since been stayed by the Supreme Court, which said the trial court did not give specific reasons for imposing the maximum punishment under the offence. Gandhi’s membership of the Lok Sabha has also been restored.
“I am raising this issue simply because this is about the reputation of our country. We are only asking the PM to announce an investigation into the allegations levelled against the Adani Group,” the Congress leader, who spoke for 20 minutes and took three questions, said.
Opposition parties have also hit out at the Modi government over the fresh allegations, with the CPI(M) saying that the reports “are a reminder of the lengths and depths to which the PM has gone to protect his corrupt friends and their misdeeds by rendering India’s regulatory and investigative agencies toothless”.
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties are set for their third meeting in Mumbai, where they are expected to forge consensus on the common minimum programme and ideological vision. The bloc of 26 opposition parties has resolved to contest on a common platform against the BJP in the next general elections, scheduled for May 2024.