New Delhi: The US court order charging billionaire businessman Gautam Adani with defrauding investors and hiding a plan to bribe Indian officials vindicated the Congress' stand, the party said on Thursday and reiterated its demand of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe against Adani and an investigation against former SEBI chief Madhabi Buch.
“The recent US court order against Adani shows that our stand has been vindicated. Our leader Rahul Gandhi has been demanding a JPC investigation into the Adani issue for a long time but the government has not agreed. Our leader has been against big monopolies and exploitation of natural resources and the public. He is not against any single individual or all business. He recently said that if Adani gets some contracts in a state through proper rules, then he had no problem with that. But we have seen the BJP use threats of central probe agencies to get contracts for this businessman who is close to the Prime Minister. We have been and will continue to raise these issues,” AICC secretary in charge of Jharkhand Saptagiri Ulaka told ETV Bharat.
Ulaka said that the US court order will not impact the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand as the voting was over there but would certainly give credence to the opposition which had raised the issue of Adani’s business interests in the two states.
“Adani is already present in Jharkhand which has a lot of natural resources and is trying to expand his influence in the tribal state. The same is the case in Maharashtra where he has been awarded a mega project to redevelop the Dharavi slum in Mumbai. The MVA leaders have already said they will cancel the project if the alliance comes to power,” he said.
Ulaka said the Congress will again raise the demand for a JPC probe against Adani during the coming winter session of parliament starting Dec 25 and will work with other like-minded parties.
He said the Parliamentary Action Committee had called Madhabi Buch for questioning recently but she did not turn up and later the BJP members created a ruckus over the issue.
AICC in charge of Andhra Pradesh Manickam Tagore said the US court order had exposed the businessman’s links in the southern state as well. “Adani’s indictment in the US exposes the nexus between former chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and Adani in looting the state. From ports to energy deals, public resources have been exploited for private gains. It is time for accountability and an end to this plunder masked as development,” Tagore told ETV Bharat.
Tagore cited recent reports in which NCP leader Ajit Pawar mentioned that Adani had hosted a dinner for some senior leaders to allegedly topple the former MVA government in 2019.
“Rahul Gandhi had lost his Lok Sabha membership and his official house because he had publicly questioned the links of this businessman and the PM. The entire opposition had been demanding a fair probe under JPC which will have members from all parties. We will continue to raise that issue. Our leader has also been flagging the alleged scam in the stock market done by Madhabi Buch and demanding a thorough investigation. All this is to safeguard the small investors,” he added.
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