NEW DELHI: A US court indictment of Gautam Adani and others for allegedly bribing Indian officials to secure lucrative contracts while raising funds from American investors triggered a political slugfest between the Congress and the ruling BJP on Thursday with the rivals accusing each other of protecting the corrupt.
Armed with fresh fodder on the issue ahead of the winter session of Parliament, which begins on Monday, the Congress sought Adani’s arrest, besides renewing its call for a joint parliamentary panel probe into alleged financial irregularities by the Adani conglomerate.
Adani denied all charges even as the Opposition vowed a joint strategy to corner the government on the issue in the upcoming Parliament session.
Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi led the offensive today, seeking Adani’s arrest and accusing PM Narendra Modi of protecting the businessman. The BJP hit back, dismissing all allegations as “part of a familiar Congress pattern of using lies and invectives to malign PM Modi’s reputation”.
“The Gandhi family cannot tolerate Indian economy’s rapid rise. Rahul’s international structure involving Ilhan Omar and George Soros wants to impact Indian markets… but the PM’s credibility is high. While Rahul holds a press conference here, PM Modi is being conferred with top civilian honours miles away (Guyana and Dominica),” BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said while countering Rahul.
The BJP also questioned the timing of the new allegations on the eve of the Parliament session.
Earlier today, Rahul questioned why Adani, “charged by a US court and facing arrest warrants there, is a free man in India despite perpetrating scams”.
“CMs go to jail for Rs 10-15 crore scams and Adani, who has committed an over Rs 2,000 crore scam in the US, is scot-free. The PM has given a slogan, ek hain to safe hain’. In India, Adani is safe till PM Modi is there,” said Rahul.
The Congress’ case is that while a US court has indicted Adani and others for alleged corrupt practices on the findings of America’s Security Exchange Commission, its Indian counterpart, SEBI, under Madhabi Puri Buch has not properly probed alleged Adani firm frauds.
To probe these alleged irregularities, the Congress and wider opposition are seeking a JPC after the SC in January this year upheld SEBI’s investigation into US firm Hindenburg’s financial malpractice accusations against the Adani Group. The court refused to transfer the probe to a SIT or the CBI saying SEBI was conducting a comprehensive investigation.
The BJP today referred to court’s observations in the past and said Rahul had previously also levelled similar allegations in the Rafale jet purchase matter and later apologised to the court.
Another point of contention between the Congress and the BJP today was the name of Indian states mentioned in the US court indictment with four of the five states mentioned ruled by non-BJP parties at the time of alleged bribery transactions.
“The issue revolves around an agreement concerning electricity sales and purchases involving state distribution companies, two companies one from the US and one from India and four Indian states. The timeline of transactions spans from July 2021 to February 2022. The four states involved, as per the documentation, are Chhattisgarh during the Congress government; Andhra Pradesh during the YSRCP government; Tamil Nadu during the DMK government; and Odisha during the BJD government. None of these states were governed by the BJP or backed by it,” BJP leaders said.
They evaded the mention of the fifth entity, J&K, then a UT, also mentioned in Brooklyn court’s indictment and which was under the Centre’s rule through the L-G.
Questioned on this today, Rahul said investigations should cover all states irrespective of which party ruled.
“But Adani should be arrested,” he insisted, adding that the buck stops with the PM whose credibility, he said, “has been destroyed”. The BJP’s counter to Rahul’s allegations was if PM Modi was backing Adani, why were the Congress and opposition-ruled states accepting investments from Adani’s firms.
“Why did Adani invest Rs 25,000 crore under the Congress rule in Chhattisgarh; Rs 65,000 crore during the Congress rule in Rajasthan; pledge Rs 1 lakh crore investment in the Congress-ruled Karnataka; and donate Rs 100 crore to the Congress-ruled Telangana this October,” asked Sambit Patra.