Imagine someone other than Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India, and a report comes out that a close confidant of the PM, one of the richest men in the world, has been indicted by the US after a multi-year investigation for paying thousands of crores in bribes to win solar power contracts that also ended up increasing people’s electricity bills.
There would be shock and uproar, a non-stop media circus and the likely resignation of that PM. But in ‘New India’, the PM does not say a word, pretending nothing has happened, and the media looks away to the next story. No, nothing to see here.
On 21 November, news broke that the US Department of Justice had indicted Gautam Adani and seven others, including his nephew Sagar Adani, for their alleged role in a Rs 2,000-crore bribery scam. The indictment alleges that between 2020 and 2024, Adani and his co-defendants offered bribes to Indian government officials to secure contracts projected to yield over Rs 16,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu.
While four of these states were ruled by Opposition parties, Jammu and Kashmir was directly governed by the Centre under the President’s rule. Recent contracts for overpriced solar power in BJP-ruled Rajasthan and Maharashtra also show a similar pattern.
‘Parallel universe’
In the bizarre world of the Adani scam, it is the Opposition parties that are demanding an investigation into allegations against primarily Opposition-ruled states. And a government that has turned the full might of investigative agencies on the Opposition and civil society over the past decade is suddenly looking coy. Chief ministers are arrested over corruption allegations involving Rs 31 crore or Rs 100 crore, but a pal of the Prime Minister who allegedly paid bribes to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore roams free.
You can’t simultaneously support the accusation that officials in Opposition-ruled states took bribes, while defending Adani with pseudo-nationalist rhetoric. If bribes were taken by those officials, then logically Adani paid them. Parallel universes should be limited to Marvel movies.
This is the most basic of facts: it’s illegal to give and take bribes in India.
And there are plenty of cases of Indian investigations that began after the initial allegations came from abroad.
Instead, the BJP is trying to gaslight and divert the attention to dark conspiracies around Joe Biden, George Soros, and, quite likely next, the Elders of Zion. But weren’t Modi and Biden ‘bromancing’ just the other day? And how does exposing criminality by one specific monopolist amount to an attack on India or India Inc?
Also read: Indicted by US, sentenced by the market. Damage to Adani this time will be deeper, longer lasting
A ‘close relationship’
Even after the Hindenburg allegations were made, the public institutions that are meant to investigate white-collar crime–SEBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the Income Tax Department—failed to take any meaningful action. Previous investigations by these agencies into cases involving Adani have mysteriously ground to a halt. The seemingly limitless conflicts of interest of SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, including her investments in funds linked to money laundering by Adani, ended all hope in SEBI.
These developments vindicate the Congress party’s Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun campaign, which raised 100 questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s close relationship with Adani. And this is why the Opposition has demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate this relationship.
The actual attack on India and India Inc is being done through this partnership. Narendra Modi’s political monopoly and Gautam Adani’s business monopoly are inseparable. Each feeds and serves the other, at the cost of Indian democracy and competitive markets. Rahul Gandhi has been reminding us for years about the methodical takeover of Indian infrastructure and Adani’s acquisitions of airports, ports, media companies, and cement plants under the PM’s patronage, and with the active help of the ED, CBI and the Income Tax Department.
In the end, everyone else suffers. Indian businesses are unable to compete with the Modi-Adani partnership, which the Congress refers to as ‘Modani’, in critical infrastructure sectors. Political parties are unable to compete with the BJP cash machine. Indian consumers suffer as over-invoiced Indonesian coal, and expensive solar power are foisted on our bankrupt electricity utilities. The BJP’s brute power and Adani’s enormous wealth are extracted exactly this way, at the cost of citizens. It’s a win-win for them, and a lose-lose for everyone else.
Amitabh Dubey is a Congress member. He tweets @dubeyamitabh. Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)
the Congressi here should ask this question to Gujarat Congress leaders of yesteryears who made Adani this big. Mundra port was awarded to him and that time no one gave two hoots about monopoly it seems. Why dear Congressi neta ?
Interesting to note that article is written by a CON from CONgress. And they have failed to provide any proof of wrongdoing so far.
Jawaharlal Nehru: let’s follow socialism.
Advisers: It will result in corruption, monopolies, etc.
Jawaharlal Nehru: so be it.
Following prime ministers: so be it.
India is corruption, corruption is India should be made part of the constitution.