Decode Politics: Congress doth protest again on Adani, but why SC order and a Telangana invite take sting out

It also came on the same day as the Congress government in Telangana held a meeting with the Adani Group, which it had asked for, for potential investments in the state.

Rahul and Adani

The Congress leader has repeatedly accused the Narendra Modi government of favouring Gautam Adani, making this one of the central themes of his election campaign across successive polls. It was also the basis of his remark suggesting that all people with Modi surname were “thieves”, leading to his conviction by a court and disqualification as MP – since stayed.

In his upcoming yatra too, which will last from January 14 to March 20, and will involve him travelling from Manipur to Mumbai, the allegations against the Adani Group and the Prime Minister’s alleged “relationship” with the businessman were to be a key talking point, in the context of the march’s focus on economic justice and crony capitalism.

In February last year, several questions raised by Rahul in Parliament on the matter had been expunged by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. In all, 18 bits from Rahul’s 53-minute speech were removed, including where he waved a photograph.

Subsequently, the Congress had announced it would be asking three questions a day, totalling a hundred, on the Adani matter. Congress communications head Jairam Ramesh proceeded to do so from February 5, 2023, onwards.

The Opposition stand

The Opposition parties had held up Parliament in February last year demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the allegations against the Adani Group, stepping up their calls after the Hindenburg report. But the Modi government stood firm against the demand.

Later, cracks had developed within the Opposition front on the issue, with the Trinamool Congress and Left backing a Supreme Court-monitored probe. NCP chief Sharad Pawar had also subsequently disassociated the party from the demand for a JPC.

Cong reaction to SC order

Jairam Ramesh called the Supreme Court order “extraordinarily generous to SEBI”, “not least by extending its original investigation deadline of August 14, 2023, by another three months to April 3, 2024”. “It is noteworthy that SEBI has failed to complete its investigation into the violation of securities laws and stock manipulation by the Adani Group and its associates 10 months after the Supreme Court’s expert committee asked it to do so. It is unclear what will change in the next three months other than the Model Code of Conduct for the Lok Sabha elections coming into effect,” the Congress communications head said.

Ramesh also mentioned “a series of exposés from credible news sources” on the Adani Group, including a report of the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and another by The Financial Times alleging over-invoicing on coal imported by the Adani Group to Mundra Port in Gujarat.

“The two exposés established a clear link between money flowing out from the pockets of Indian coal utilities and electricity consumers and the funds flowing into Adani Group companies, in complete violation of SEBI rules relating to minimum ownership as well as stock manipulation. The Court is right to observe that news reports are not a substitute for a proper SEBI investigation. However, it is concerning that SEBI has asked for extension after extension while the media has produced exposé after exposé,” Ramesh said.

He added: “Those describing this judgment as a ‘clean chit’ are the same as those who described the report of the (Supreme Court) Expert Committee as a ‘clean chit’. The Expert Committee had pointed out that SEBI had in 2018 diluted and subsequently, in 2019, entirely deleted the reporting requirements relating to the ultimate beneficial (i.e. actual) ownership of foreign funds. This had tied its hands to the extent that ‘the securities market regulator suspects wrongdoing, but also finds compliance with various stipulations in attendant regulations… It is this dichotomy that has led to SEBI drawing a blank worldwide’, the Expert Committee had stated.”

Reaction of other parties

Calling the Supreme Court judgment disappointing and unfortunate on several grounds, the CPI(M) said: “A statutory body like the SEBI has not been fulfilling its mandate for expeditiously probing allegations against the Adani Group. In 2014, the DRI (Directorate of Revenue Intelligence) had made a reference to SEBI on a direct charge against Adani. In 2021, Parliament was informed that SEBI had been probing allegations against Adani, but in its affidavit to the Court, SEBI denied such a probe. It is surprising that the Court took such a denial at its face value without questioning why SEBI has not acted on the complaints.”

The CPI(M) said SEBI had changed its own rules making them more opaque. “The Expert Committee set up by the Supreme Court had itself stated that ‘SEBI’s pursuit of investigations is based on the premise that it is pursuing the ‘spirit of the law’, which flies in the face of the prospective amendments with deferred effect that SEBI has made on the legislative side’. However, the Supreme Court has given approval to these amendments, which admittedly act as a wall to conceal identities of the links of foreign investors with the ultimate beneficiary,” it said.

What will Cong do now

The Congress said it would continue to raise the issue and demand a JPC probe, noting that SEBI’s mandate was limited to probing violation of securities regulations.

The SEBI “will not, for instance, look into how the Modi government manipulated bidding conditions over the objections of the NITI Aayog and Finance Ministry to hand Adani a complete airports monopoly, and misused the ED and CBI to force critical national assets into the hands of the PM’s cronies”, the Congress said.

“To get to the bottom of the Modani MegaScam, nothing less than a JPC will do,” Ramesh said. “None of the hundred pointed questions asked in our… series last year stand answered after today’s judgment. Our fight for NYAY against crony capitalism and its ill-effects on prices, employment and inequalities will continue even more forcefully.”

Meanwhile, in Telangana…

On the invitation of Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, an Adani Group team led by Gautam Adani’s son Karan met him on Wednesday. The Chief Minister’s Office said the CM had invited the Adani Group to invest in the Congress-ruled state. Minister of IT and Industries D Sridhar Babu and Adani Aero Space CEO Ashish Rajvanshi were present at the meeting, where the Adani team discussed possible areas of investment.

The CM assured that the Telangana government would provide the needed facilities and subsidies to industries interested in the state, including the Adani Group.

The business group is said to have expressed interest in setting up a data centre along with an aerospace park in the state. In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the group is setting up a 300-MW data centre, the biggest such in the country, that promises to change the dynamics of broadband services.

With inputs from Sreenivas Janyala, Hyderabad