Chandigarh Congress today held a press conference at Rajiv Gandhi Congress Bhawan which was addressed by H S Lucky President, Chandigarh Pradesh Congress and senior leaders of the Congress party. Addressing the Media H S Lucky said that the Congress party stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of India struggling against rising prices, highest unemployment and a Government sponsored divisive agenda to deflect the public attention from its governance failure. He further announced that the Congress party will hold agitation at the Block level from 6th to 10th March, in front of offices of Nationalized Banks and LIC. A massive “Chalo Raj Bhavan” march will be organised on Monday, the 13th of March 2023 to protest against the recent PM-linked Adani Maha Mega Scam.
The Congress leaders said that we want to know who is the real owner of the black money being routed to India via offshore shell companies operating from tax havens?
PM Modi had promised to bring back black money to India and transfer Rs 15- 20 lakh to every citizen‘s bank account but on the contrary Switzerland’s central bank informed that funds parked by Indian individuals and firms jumped to a 14-year high of 3.83 billion Swiss francs(over Rs 30500 crore) in 2021, which clearly shows Government failure and back-tracking “KYA HUA TERA WADA, WO KASAM WOH IRADA”.
H S Lucky said we are not against any particular person rising from 609th place in the richest persons’ list to the 2nd position. But we are certainly against the government-sponsored private monopolies as those are against public interests and we are also against a particular persons accused of having objectionable relations with tax havens, fraud and corruption monopolizing our national resources while exploiting our international goodwill. Surprisingly all the Government agencies are either missing from action or facilitating the very process of mutual understanding between Modi and crony capitalist. Why this government is not forming Joint Parliamentary Committee on the issue?. The collapse in stock prices following the publication of these allegations has financially damaged the lakhs of retail investors who invested in Adani Group stocks after being duped by artificially-inflated prices. The value of Adani Group stock crashed by ₹10,50,000 crore between 24th January and 15th February,2023. The value of Adani Group stocks held by LIC erode Rs 44,000 crore in the equity holdings of 30 crore LIC policyholders. Despite the fall in share prices and serious allegations of wrong doing by the Group, the Modi government compelled LIC to invest an additional ₹300 crore in the Adani Enterprises follow on public offer on 30th January 2023. In July 2021 the Ministry of finance had admitted in Parliament the the Adani Group was under investigation for Violating SEBI regulations. For all of PM Modi’s talk of cracking down on black money, his favourite business group is alleged to have manipulated stock price using offshore shell companies and related parties The Monterosa group posing as investment funds has owned as much as $4.5 billion (₹37,000 crores) of Adani Group stock whose accounts were frozen by SEBI in 2016. The Fugitive diamond merchant ,Elara Capital, brother of former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was until recently a director, held several thousands of crores worth of stock almost exclusively in the Adani Group. There are other such cases. What was SEBI doing while this fraud was going on?
In 2006, the UPA awarded concessions to the GMR and GVK groups to operate Delhi and Mumbai airports, respectively, which the Supreme Court upheld on 7th November, 2006. Even though GMR had emerged as the top bidder in both cases, it was decided not to award both to the firm in the interest of competition. In 2019 even the right to operate Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangalore, Jaipur, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram airports were awarded to Adani Group with zero prior experience in operating airports and NITI Aayog in a memo argued that “a bidder lacking sufficient technical capacity” could “jeopardise the project and compromise the quality of services the government is committed to provide.
NITI Aayog filed its objection and a note from the Department of Economic Affairs had strongly recommended that not more than two airports be awarded to a single bidder to reduce risk and to facilitate competition, as was the case with the Delhi and Mumbai airport privatisations. Yet this too was ignored by the ruling dispensation. The Adani Group’s takeover of Mumbai airport is a case study in crony capitalism. The GVK Group had vigorously contested the Adani group’s attempts to buy a stake in Mumbai airport in 2019, going to the courts and raising funds to buy out its joint venture partners Bidvest and ACSA. In August 2020, only one month following raids by the CBI and ED, GVK felt compelled to sell its most valueable assets to the Adani Group. What happened to the CBI and ED investigations against GVK?
Modi Government facilitated an Adani monopoly in the ports sector also using all the means at its disposal like Income Tax raids, allotment without bidding or compelling competitors to withdraw like for Dighi Port and Krishnapatam Port. The Adani Group today controls 13 ports and terminals that represent 30% of India’s ports capacity and 40% of total container volume. This growth trajectory has accelerated since 2014 with Mundra Port in Gujarat, include Dhamra Port, Odisha (2015), Kattupalli Port, Andhra Pradesh (2020), Gangavaram Port, Andhra Pradesh (2021) and Dighi Port, Maharashtra (2021). Is it prudent for national security to allow a firm that faces serious accusations of money laundering by offshore shell companies to dominate a strategic sector?
Gautam Adani is known to have accompanied PM Modi on a number of foreign trips. Since his July 4-6 2017 visit to Israel, he has been given a lucrative role in the India-Israel defence relationship with joint ventures in drones, electronic, small arms and aircraft maintenance despite no prior experience, unlike many start-ups and public sector firms that have been in those sectors for many years.
The UPA had signed an MoU in 2010 for the state-owned NTPC to set up a 1,320 MW thermal power plant in Bagerhat, Bangladesh. In 2015 it was announced that Adani Power would construct a thermal power plant in Godda, Jharkhand to supply electricity to Bangladesh. Jharkhand originally required 25% of the electricity produced by a power plant to be supplied to the state at discounted rates. However in 2016 the policy was abruptly amended to benefit Adani and is expected to cost Jharkhand an additional ₹7,410 crore over the 25 years. In the year 2017 state Accountant General wrote the agreement with Adani amounts to “preferential treatment” and would give the company “undue benefits”. In 2018, Adani Power had applied to set up the Godda power plant as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to avail of tax benefits despite serious objections by Ministry of Commerce and same ministry amended the guidelines to give the benefit to Adani power to the tune of Rs 300 crore per year via elimination of coal import duties.
The controversial inclusion of Adani Enterprises in the NSE Nifty 50 index forced Nifty index funds, including India’s largest pension fund body EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation), to make significant purchases of this risky stock. Recently, global stock indices have suspended Adani Group companies but the NSE has failed to take any similar action to protect investors.
On 14th June 2022, the Adani Group announced that it would invest $50 billion in green hydrogen in alliance with France’s Total Energies. On 4th January 2023, the Union Cabinet approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an outlay of Rs 18,744 crore. Total Energies has since suspended its participation in the venture, but is there Adani business announcements that is not followed up with taxpayer-funded subsidy?
Rather than investigating, PM Modi offered even more opportunities to the Adani Group in this year’s Mitr Kaal budget. Over the years, PM Modi has misused agencies like the ED, CBI and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to intimidate his political or ideological opponents, and to punish business houses that do not fall in line with his financial interests.
The Modi government may have controlled all the government agencies and institutions like CAG, CBI etc. for the last nine years but the truth always comes out and it cannot be suppressed by using the ED and CBI. Please wait and watch, this is just a beginning, more skeletons will tumble out from BJP’s closet.
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