By Sushil Kutty
Media should stop using “alleged” when reporting billionaire Gautam Adani’s many exploits. Why will someone so stinking rich need to bribe and commit fraud? “Alleged” robs the seriousness of the charge, and partially exonerates the man, who has friends in high places, which is all the more reason for setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe, which will also clear Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the charge of guilt by association.
Gautam Adani has been charged in the United States. Left to Indian agencies, he would have gone scot-free. Adani and his nephew, and a few Adani Group executives, have been charged with “bribery and fraud”, crimes committed in India, which makes it imperative that he clear his fair name. The huge money he has pumped into projects in several opposition-ruled states should not be an excuse for clean-chit.
A JPC is not always to indict. A JPC is also a vehicle to come clean. Gautam Adani and his friends in very high places should welcome the Opposition’s call for a JPC. That is better than LoP Rahul Gandhi’s call for “arrest”. But for arrest, the Congress should file FIR in India. The lame-duck Biden Department of Justice apparently has no jurisdiction in India.
What can the court in the United States do except give a bad name to Adani, which it already has? Gautam Adani can’t be touched in India unless the Government of India wants to. The charges against Gautam Adani in the US have divided India. One-half led by the Congress wants him nailed to the rafters. The other-half led by friends of the BJP, is laughing at Rahul Gandhi’s “frustrations”.
The Congress’ target is not Adani, it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Nobody is going after Gautam Adani because he has committed crimes for which he should be punished. Gautam Adani is at the receiving end because he is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “friend” and what are friends for if not to discredit and disfigure character? Gautam Adani has been in the middle of the Opposition’s ‘Oust Modi’ campaign. Gautam Adani shouldn’t have left himself and his pal Modi vulnerable by bribing government officials for government contracts.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should agree to a JPC investigation if only to clear his reputation and name. Prime Minister Modi just yesterday was honoured with Guyana’s top civilian award and his international image, which he values more than the memory of his dear departed mother, is what keeps him afloat in the most choppy of political waters.
Gautam Adani’s name should be cleared for Modi’s name to be cleared. The charges against Adani won’t dissipate when President-elect Donald Trump assumes office on January 20. Modi cannot just up and ask pal Trump to drop the charges against Adani. There is no guarantee Trump will follow-through, but he might. After all, what are friends for, as Prime Minister Modi himself would admit?
That said, Gautam Adani is not new to charges of wrongdoing. It isn’t his fault Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Shah are also Gujarati. When mother-tongue is the same, friendship is thick. Bringing down Gautam Adani will tantamount to bringing down Modi. Gautam Adani cannot protect Modi and should therefore undergo the JPC test.
The Modi government should not oppose the Opposition’s call for setting up a JPC. Gautam Adani’s stock is falling and his commitment to honesty is the best policy is left to doubt. Also, this is not the first time Adani has been charged on the international stage. Before being charged with bribery and fraud, crimes committed in his home-country India, Adani was embroiled in the “Hindenburg fiasco”.
All this “vindicates” the Opposition’s demand for a JPC investigation into “scams” his sprawling financial-industrial complex is said to be involved in. Gautam Adani is the only billionaire in the billionaire’s club whose billions haven’t done any good for him. The Congress senses Adani will not escape the international dragnet this time.
The Congress wants “a new and credible” SEBI Chief to investigate the “Adani Mega Scam”. SEBI Chief Madhabi Puri Buch is also in the whorl of a storm of her own wrongdoings. Congress communications head Jairam Ramesh said the “indictment of Gautam Adani” by the US Securities and Exchanges Commission vindicates the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the various “Modani scams.”
US prosecutors have charged Gautam Adani with paying bribes totalling $250 million to Indian bureaucrats to give the Adani Group solar power government contracts, solar energy contracts that would have fetched Adani over $2 billion in profit after tax!
Congress strategist Jairam Ramesh has charged SEBI with doing a lousy job investigating the Adani Group. The Congress has been demanding a JPC since January 2023. The Congress asked a “hundred questions” to bring out the various dimensions of the scams and the intimate nexus that existed between Prime Minister Modi and Adani. “These questions have remained unanswered,” Ramesh said. “The Congress reiterates its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee.”
The Adani Group’s growing monopolisation of key sectors is also the reason why PM Modi should send the Adani nexus to the JPC. LoP Rahul Gandhi is convinced ‘Modani’ will meet its Waterloo and India’s economy will surge once Adani and Modi are out of the way. And India’s neighbours will heave a sigh of relief. Is the US indictment a blow to India? US citizen Sam Pitroda says yes, it is a blow to the “Indian name and fame.”
“Very surprised and shocked to see that #SEC charges three senior executives in two actions alleging (a) massive #bribery scheme involving Indian Energy companies #Adani Green and #Azure Power. It is a huge blow to the #Indian name and fame,” Pitroda said in a post on ‘X’. “I am sure there is more to come.” Fact is, the Congress is banking on “more to come”.
Congress leader Manish Tewari also sought a JPC into the Adani group’s dealings. So did Rajya Sabha member Manoj Jha of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal. Tewari called it “JPC into L’Affaire Gautam Adani”. Adani and “others” paid bribes and concealed them from US investors is the charge. Adani also lied to India’s stock exchanges BSE & NSE, which is a serious offence. The Congress called it “Adani’s criminal activities.”
US prosecutors said Gautam Adani and his executives, which includes his nephew Sagar R Adani, paid over $250 million (Rs 2,100 crore) in bribes to Indian government officials for lucrative solar energy supply contracts, which would have generated more than $2 billion (Rs 16,800 crore) in net profits. “All of this is consistent with a long record of fraud and criminality carried out with impunity with the obvious protection of the Prime Minister,” the Opposition said, while asking for a JPC.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name is at stake. Wasn’t it Modi who said “Na Khaunga Na Khane Doonga”? Gautam Adani escaped scrutiny for a long time and would have gone scot-free but for the “foreign investigators” who investigated his sorties into criminal activities. Left to India’s investigating agencies working under BJP supervision, Gautam Adani would have enriched more and more greedy bureaucrats and power-hungry leaders.
The Opposition wants a “new and credible” SEBI head to investigate the “Adani Mega Scam”, and a JPC. Pursuing foreign corruption allegations is allowed in the USA if it involves links to American investors or markets. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not baulk at setting up a JPC into “La’ Affaire Gautam Adani”. History is full of friends back-stabbing friends. At the end of the day, as Sam Pitroda put it, is saving “Indian name and fame”, and Sam is no less a Gujarati than Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (IPA Service)
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