Hyderabad: After businessman Gautam Adani met Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and the two signed MoUs worth Rs 12,400 crore for investment in the state, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has attacked the Congress, questioning its “silence” over the deal.
The Congress — which has been attacking the Narendra Modi government for allegedly favouring Adani — was defensive. When a question was asked to senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram at a press conference in New Delhi Wednesday on the MoU, the former Union finance minister swiftly moved the mike towards Congress leader Supriya Shrinate.
However, Shrinate, chairperson of Congress’s social media and digital platforms, didn’t answer either and instead asked that the reporters’ questions be on the agenda of the press conference at the AICC headquarters – the party’s manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 54th annual meeting in Davos, Reddy met Adani Wednesday and four MoUs were signed towards an investment of Rs 12,400 crore in Telangana.
While Reddy said it was “a great pleasure” to welcome Adani to Telangana, the latter hailed the CM’s “extremely business, investor-friendly policies.”
According to a press release issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Adani Green Energy will invest Rs 5,000 crore for setting up two pumped storage projects of 1,350 MW capacity in the state. In addition, AdaniConneX will invest Rs 5,000 crore for a data centre campus at Chandanvelly near Hyderabad.
Ambuja Cements, which was acquired by Adani last year, will invest Rs 1,400 crore in a cement grinding unit in Telangana with a capacity of six million tonnes per annum, while Adani Aerospace and Defence will invest Rs 1,000 crore in counter drone systems and missile development and manufacturing centres at the Adani Aerospace Park in Hyderabad.
Apart from the above investments, the CMO release said, Adani Group has agreed to “support the chief minister’s goal of creating skilling universities in Telangana” by developing an integrated state-of-the-art skilling university in Telangana.
It further said that the CM has assured Adani of his government’s support in providing the required amenities, infrastructure, etc. for the above projects.
Overall, the Telangana government entered agreements with various business groups, with investment assurances adding up to about Rs 40,000 crore, according to the statement.
‘Modani’: BJP vs Congress
The Telangana BJP, meanwhile, reacted strongly to the Congress’s apparent volte-face over Adani.
“When Adani was investing in BJP-ruled states, the party’s leaders were vitriolic, accusing our leaders of being his friends, favouring him. Now, why have they gone silent? What is their connection with Adani now,” asked Telangana BJP spokesperson N.V. Subhash while speaking to ThePrint Thursday.
“The Congress had brazenly even coined a term ‘Modani’. Should we question what this meherbani (kindness) is that they are extending to Adani now?” Subhash added.
However, the BJP leader added that “though Congress has to be faulted for its flawed approach, unfair attacks, unsubstantiated criticisms,” the BJP “welcomes the investment that would benefit the people of Telangana.”
The Congress has regularly accused the BJP and its governments of favoritism and crony capitalism, especially emphasising the Adani Group’s growth across various sectors countrywide in the past few years.
“Modani” is a portmanteau of the names of Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi — a term that was also used by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi last year.
In a post on X in March last year, Gandhi wrote, “LIC’s capital to Adani! SBI’s capital to Adani! EPFO’s capital also to Adani! Even after the revelations of ‘Modani’, why is the public’s retirement money being invested in Adani’s companies? Prime Minister, no investigation, no answer! After all, why so much fear?”
LIC की पूंजी, अडानी को!
SBI की पूंजी, अडानी को!
EPFO की पूंजी भी, अडानी को!
‘मोडानी’ के खुलासे के बाद भी, जनता के रिटायरमेंट का पैसा अडानी की कंपनियों में निवेश क्यों किया जा रहा है?
प्रधानमंत्री जी, न जांच, न जवाब! आख़िर इतना डर क्यों?
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 27, 2023
Following the Hindenburg Research report on Adani in early 2023, the Congress sharpened the attack on Modi and also stalled Parliament proceedings seeking an investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
“I will continue to ask the question. What is the prime minister’s relationship with Mr Adani? It is an old relationship. It is a relationship that began when he (Narendra Modi) was the chief minister of Gujarat. Mr Adani constructed the idea of ‘a resurgent Gujarat’. He organised all that. It is a close partnership. I am going to keep asking about it,” Gandhi had said while addressing reporters in March when he was disqualified as an MP.
Meanwhile, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and former minister K.T. Rama Rao (KTR), too, slammed the Congress government for “opportunistic politics”, recalling that Reddy had attacked Adani in the past.
“The Congress should explain this change of heart. Revanth Reddy had called Adani a thief before the assembly elections. Now, he is making friends with him at Davos. This is the Congress’s opportunistic politics,” KTR reportedly said Thursday, adding, “in Delhi, the Congress fights with Adani, and here it wants to work with him”.
‘Triumphant visit’
When the BRS was in power, it was not CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao but his son, IT, industries and commerce minister KTR, who had attended the annual WEF summit four times — 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023, according to an official from Telangana government who spoke with ThePrint over the phone from Davos.
Therefore, Reddy became the first Telangana CM to represent the state at the international forum. The CM arrived at Davos Monday, launching the “Invest in Telangana” campaign at the state’s pavilion.
On Thursday, a CMO statement termed Reddy’s first visit to Davos “a triumphant one”.
“We have successfully shown to the business world that Telangana means business,” remarked Reddy at Davos. He met several foreign and Indian corporate moguls at the event, including Sajjan Jindal, chairman of JSW Group, Geoff Martha, CEO of Medtronic, and Preetha Reddy of Apollo Hospitals.
At Davos, JSW Neo Energy announced a Rs 9,000-crore pumped storage project in Telangana with an energy generation capacity of 1,500 MW, according to the CMO statement.
GODI India Private Limited, according to another MoU, will set up a lithium gigafactory unit with a Rs 8,000-crore investment outlay over five years.
Also, an MoU was exchanged with Web Werks, a fully owned subsidiary of Iron Mountain, for data centre investments amounting to Rs 5,200 crore over the next few years, according to the statement.
Aragen Life Sciences has also announced Telangana expansion plans with a new investment of Rs 2,000 crore, creating 1,500 new jobs.
Reddy also met Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran in Davos. Tata Technologies Limited will be investing around Rs 1,500 crore to set up advanced skilling centres in 50 government industrial training institutes and will also deploy master trainers to handhold the new courses, according to the CMO statement.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)