New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the Congress and leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi of attempting to tarnish Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image as opposition parties have demanded an investigation after the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Attorney’s Office of the United States charged billionaire Gautam Adani over his alleged role in a “massive bribery scheme”.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi on November 21, BJP MP and party spokesperson Sambit Patra said that the Adani group will issue its own statement and “law will take its course” but pointed to four non-BJP ruled states with regard to Adani’s investments and said none of them had a BJP chief minister.
“The issue revolves around an agreement concerning electricity sales and purchases involving State Distribution Companies (SDCs), two companies—one from the US and one from India—and four Indian states. The timeline of the transactions spans from July 2021 to February 2022,” he said.
“The four states involved, as per the documentation, are Chhattisgarh during Bhupesh Baghel’s Congress government, Andhra Pradesh, alleged to have the most transactions, during Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRCP government, Tamil Nadu during M.K. Stalin’s DMK government and Odisha during the BJD government.”
Curiously, Patra forgot to mention Jammu and Kashmir, which was also named in the US indictment. During the period in question – i.e. 2021-2022 – the Union territory was being directly governed by the BJP-led Union government, via Amit Shah’s home ministry and lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha.
Similarly, Patra ignored Paragraph 70 of the US indictment which noted the implied collusion of the Modi government-run Solar Energy Corporation of India, which helped the Adani group obtain and revise “internal SECI documents”:
“The defendants SAGAR R. ADANI and VNEET S. JAAIN and other Indian Energy Company personnel also secretly influenced the SECI process for reallocation of the 2.3 GW PPAs to the Indian Energy Company’s subsidiary, including by directing the U.S. Issuer’s submissions to SECI and by obtaining and revising internal SECI documents.”
Patra’s statement came after news broke on November 21 on the charges against Adani who is alleged to have paid massive bribes to Indian government officials.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has in its indictment said that Adani is accused of personally being involved in the scheme, in which “more than $250 million” was promised in bribes to Indian government officials, which took place between 2020 to 2024.
“The defendants frequently met and discussed the bribery scheme, including evidence on several phones,” it says.
The Adani Group has called the charges “baseless” and denied them.
Following the revelations, Congress leader and leader of the opposition in parliament, Rahul Gandhi, reiterated his long standing demand for a probe against Adani and challenged Modi to arrest him.
“If Gautam Adani is arrested, the PM knows that he will also be implicated (for being complicit in his crimes),” he said.
Gandhi said that he has been raising concerns about the way the Adani-Modi duo has “hijacked Hindustan” that has led to loss of jobs, power price spike and inflation in the country.
Patra said that this is not the first time that Gandhi has undermined Modi’s credibility.
“Neither ‘Maut Ka Saudagar’ nor ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ could dent the image of honourable PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji, as the nation knows who truly holds credibility and who does not,” he said.
The Congress was also questioned by the BRS, with working president K.T. Rama Rao sharing an image of Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy with Adani in a post on X.
“The great person who tried to cheat the superpower America, The fraudster who bribed the Indian government. The association of BJP and Congress with this Adani is a shame to the country,” he wrote on X in Telugu.
Meanwhile, other opposition parties have demanded an investigation into the charges against Adani.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra in a statement on November 22 (today) said that since it had come to light that the FBI’s raids on Sagar Adani – Gautam Adani’s nephew – in March 2023 was “hidden from the Indian markets”.
“SEBI (Security and Exchange Board of India) was complicit in this and Madhabi Puri Buch (SEBI chairperson) was complicit in this and they have lied and committed perjury to the Supreme Court of India and said that they were unaware of any wrongdoing by the Adani group. Adani group and SEBI have lied on affidavit.
“Today we have a situation where India has outsourced integrity of regulatory & investigative agencies to foreign countries,” she said.
In a statement on November 21, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) also said that the charges of “large-scale bribery suborning of government officials” by the Adani group had to be exposed not in India but in the United States.
“Gautam Adani and his business empire have had the full protection of the Modi government to execute unlawful and criminal activities. Prime Minister himself has shielded Adani from any enquiry or prosecution on the charges emanating from the Hindenburg expose,” the statement said.
“The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) must be directed to immediately file a case based on the material provided by the prosecution in the United States,” it said.
“A full fledged investigation by an independent agency is required to unearth all other wrongdoings by the Adani group of companies.”
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in a press conference said that Adani had brought “shame” to the country and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s friend Gautam Adani has brought shame to India across the world,” said AAP MP Sanjay Singh.
“The revelations that have come up now after a probe by agencies in US has shocked the country. Such a big scam, all the proof is available yet there has been no probe. Why is this happening? Has he (Adani) been given the freedom to loot the whole country by Modi and BJP?”
“Adani Green got electricity contracts for 12000 cr in the country and Modi exerted pressure to get the electricity contract for his friend, to ensure that the people get electricity at expensive rates but Adani should profit. Along with this, Adani also gave a bribe of more than Rs 2100 crore to the officials,” he added.
The YSR Congress Party meanwhile has claimed that there are no direct agreements between Andhra Pradesh DISCOMs and the Adani Group after the the public copy of the indictment led to speculation on party chief Jaganmohan Reddy’s involvement. The indictment anonymises several names and institutions but also states that among these is “Foreign Official #1″ – a citizen of India who resided in India and served as a “high-ranking government official of Andhra Pradesh” between May 2019 through June 2024.
“There is no direct agreement between AP DISCOMs and any other entities including those belonging to the Adani group. Therefore, the allegations made on the State Government, in the light of the indictment are incorrect,” the YSRCP in a statement on X.