Congress MP, Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka said the people of India want to know how one group with doubtful credentials and alleged links with tax haven-operated offshore shell companies was monopolising the assets of India, and all the government agencies were either missing from the action or facilitating that very process.
Mr. Ulaka, who was speaking to reporters here as a part of the Congress party’s campaign ‘Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun’ against the ‘doubtful credentials’ of the Adani group’s phenomenal rise, said the country wants to know why Prime Minister Narendra Modi facilitated a crony capitalist to become the second richest person in the world and why was he silent on the international expose?
He said the Congress was not against any particular person rising from 609th place in the richest persons’ list to the second position but it was certainly against the ‘government-sponsored private monopolies’ as those were against public interests. “We are also against a particular person accused of having objectionable relations with tax havens, fraud and corruption monopolising our national resources, while exploiting our international goodwill,” he said.
Mr. Ulaka said the government may be able to expunge Rahul Gandhi’s questions and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s speech from the Parliament records but it cannot stop the people of India from seeing what’s happening in the Parliament. “As a responsible Opposition party, we are also concerned about the open loot of public exchequer to fund crony capitalists and the unfolding of this whole PM-Linked Adani Maha Mega Scam. We cannot allow the government to run away from its responsibility,” he said.
He claimed that the Modi government was scared of forming a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the issue despite having an overwhelming majority in both the houses of Parliament.
The Congress MP also asked what was SEBI doing while the alleged fraud related to the stocks of the Adani group was on. The value of Adani Group stock crashed by ₹10,50,000 crore between January 24 and February 15. He said on July 19, 2021, the Ministry of Finance had admitted in Parliament that the Adani Group was under investigation for violating SEBI regulations. Yet Adani Group stock prices were allowed to spiral. People’s money in the LIC was lost with the value of Adani Group stocks held by LIC falling from ₹83,000 crores on December 30, 2022 to ₹39,000 crores on February 15. Despite the fall in share prices and serious allegations of wrongdoing by the Group, the Modi government compelled LIC to invest an additional ₹300 crore in the Adani Enterprises follow-on public offer on January 30.
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