New Delhi: War-of-words broke out between the Government and the Opposition on Wednesday after Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House of the Parliament Mallikarjun Kharge questioned the sharp increase in Gautam Adani's wealth asking whether it has anything to do with the former's "friendship" with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Wealth of one of the closest friends of PM Modi increased by 13 times in 2.5 years. In 2014 it was Rs 50,000 cr while in 2019 it became Rs 1 lakh crore. What magic happened that suddenly in two years assets worth Rs 12 lakh crores came, is it due to favour of friendship?" said Kharge during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's address.
Demanding a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee into the Adani-Hindenburg controversy, Kharge said that if the " Prime Minister is fearless, then why should he be scared a scared of a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation into the Adani-Hindenburg issue."
This led to Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar urging Kharge to substantiate his allegation and asking him to authenticate it by submitting documents on the House table during the day. The Chairman said the House cannot become a platform for a "freefall of information."
The treasury benches also lashed out at Kharge over his comments on the Prime Minister. While Congress MPs kept claiming that Kharge was only making an "evaluation" and not an "allegation", Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Oppositiowasre repeatedly insinuating against the Prime Minister both "subtly and overtly."
Reacting to Kharge's reference to Hindenburg's report on the Adani Group, Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal said, "They (Congress) are basing their comments on baseless foreign reports. This is what the Congress does." Upon being called " anti-national" Kharge shot back saying, If I speak the truth, is it anti-national? I'm not anti-national. I'm more patriotic than anyone here. I'm a 'bhoomi-putra'...You're looting the country and telling me that I'm anti-national."
Taking another swipe at Prime Minister Kharge said " My question to PM. Why are you silent? You intimidate everyone, why don't you intimidate them? If you just put one glance at them, they will fall silent in fear of not getting a ticket. But you are remaining a Mouni Baba."
