‘Hum Adani ke hain kaun’: Congress questions PM Modi’s silence on Adani Group stock rout
The Congress on Sunday upped its ante against the Central government and even questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence over the stock rout of Adani Group companies. The grand old party sought answers from the government, alleging that the Modi government’s “loud silence” over the issue “smacks of collusion”.
Adani group stocks have taken a beating in the Indian share market after a US-based short-seller firm Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations against the conglomerate, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation.
Addressing a press conference, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said that starting Sunday the Congress will pose three questions a day to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.
The 10 listed Adani Group firms have faced a combined erosion of over Rs 8.76 lakh crore in the past few days after the Hindenburg Research report.
“At the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China on 5 September 2016, you (Modi) stated: ‘We need to act to eliminate safe havens for economic offenders, track down and unconditionally extradite money launderers and break down the web of complex international regulations and excessive banking secrecy that hide the corrupt and their deeds’. This leads to some questions that you and your government cannot hide from saying HAHK (Hum Adani Ke Hain Kaun),” the Congress leader said.
“PM Modi’s friend Gautam Adani is accused of the world’s biggest scam. But the prime minister is silent. No investigation has been done, and no action has been taken,” the Congress said in a tweet.
Keep answers ready, the party said, adding that it is going to hold a countrywide protest on Monday.
Gautam Adani, who was displaced from his position as Asia’s richest man, said in a statement this week that the interest of investors was paramount and called off a Rs 20,000 crore share sale in his flagship company, Adani Enterprises.
Following Hindenburg’s report in January, Adani Group issued multiple statements criticising the research, which it termed “baseless” and “malicious.” Hindenburg, however, responded, saying: “Fraud cannot be obfuscated by nationalism or a bloated response that ignores every key allegation we raised.”
