Despite Pawar’s stand, Congress steps up attack on Adani stock issue

Cracks may have appeared within the Opposition’s ranks on the issue of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) into the Adani stock controversy and the Hindenburg report, but the Congress leadership maintained here on Saturday that the BJP was trying to divert attention from the real questions such as who invested ₹20,000 crore in Adani companies.

Cracks may have appeared within the Opposition’s ranks on the issue of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) into the Adani stock controversy and the Hindenburg report, but the Congress leadership maintained here on Saturday that the BJP was trying to divert attention from the real questions such as who invested ₹20,000 crore in Adani companies.

Two days after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar questioned the Hindenburg report’s veracity in an interview to NDTV, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shared a satirical logo of Adani, designed with the names of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiran Kumar Reddy, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Anil K. Antony. While Mr. Azad left the Congress to form his own party, all the others were former Congressmen who joined the BJP. “They hide the truth, that’s why they mislead everyday! The question remains the same - who invested ₹20,000 crore benami money in Adani’s companies?” Mr. Gandhi asked on Twitter.

In another tweet with a video message, he alleged that the relationship between the Adani Group and China was very deep. The video alleged that the Adani group has close links with a Chinese-owned company. “Isn’t this posing a threat to our national security?” asked the video message, which was made by the Congress and shared by Mr. Gandhi. “Understand chronology,” Mr. Gandhi added.

In a third tweet, he claimed that the entire focus of the Centre was on increasing the Adani group’s income and protecting it from any investigation. Noting that the prices of wheat flour, rice, milk, ghee, mustard oil, pulses and LPG cylinders have increased manifold, he said that the Centre had not done anything to arrest the price spikes. “How will inflation come down? How will the pain of the public be visible?” Mr. Gandhi asked, reiterating his allegation that the government’s focus was on protecting the Adanis.

Joining the fray, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policy has been to “derail, distort, divert and defame”. Mr. Ramesh maintained that a JPC probe was best positioned to investigate a stock market scam. Mr. Pawar had said that a Supreme Court-monitored committee would be sufficient to investigate Hindenburg report.

“The Supreme Court Committee has very limited terms of reference. It cannot bring out the deep nexus between the Prime Minister and Adani,” Mr. Ramesh said, adding that only a JPC could find answers to a series of 100 questions posed by the Congress on the matter.

“JPCs in 1992 and 2001 were both worthwhile exercises,” Mr. Ramesh noted, responding to Mr. Pawar’s stance that a Supreme Court-monitored committee would be more effective, as the BJP will have a majority presence in any JPC given the majority it enjoys in Parliament.