The Wire Staff
A day after being disqualified as Lok Sabha MP following his conviction by a Surat court in a 2019 defamation case, a combative Rahul Gandhi on Saturday claimed that he had been disqualified because Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “scared of my next speech on Adani”.
During a press meet on Saturday, Gandhi insisted that “there is a deep relationship between Narendra Modi ji and Mr Adani” and asked, “There is a question, Rs 20,000 crore have suddenly arrived in Mr Adani’s shell companies, where has this money come from? Some of these companies are defence companies. Whose money is being spent on our drone and missile development? Why is the defence ministry not asking this question?”
Though he did not elaborate, Gandhi’s reference to the specific figure of Rs 20,000 crore resonates with two recent developments related to the group and data analysis on monies coming into the Adani Group.
“Over half” of Adani FDI came from “opaque overseas entities”: FT
An analysis by Financial Times this month, using publicly available financial data from India, concluded that almost half of Adani’s $5.7 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows were from “opaque overseas entities with connections to group”.
The Financial Times, on analysing India’s FDI remittance data, reported that offshore companies “linked to the Adanis” and “bearing funds of unclear provenance” invested almost half of all the FDI that came into the Adani Group of companies. This could be said to amount to “Rs 20,000 crore”, the figure Gandhi mentioned in his press conference.
The London-based financial daily had also written in its report about the “the role of hard-to-scrutinise money flows in financing the Indian tycoon’s business empire”. It added that Adani had aligned himself “with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development agenda”.
The report had also stated that these “offshore companies linked to the Adanis” invested at least $2.6 billion in the group between 2017 and 2022, which was 45.4% of the more than $5.7 billion it received in total FDI over the period.
The analysis concluded that the total amount of opaque overseas investments in Adani companies was an underestimation and the actual value will be higher since official FDI numbers in India exclude foreign portfolio investments, “which fall under a different reporting regime”, and also investments in listed companies amounting to less than 10% of their paid-up capital.
Aborted Adani FPO: Rs 20,000 crore
Adani Enterprises had raised Rs 20,000 crore (US$2.5 billion) through a fully subscribed follow-on public offer (FPO) in late January. However, as reported by The Wire, it subsequently called off the FPO as it faced market volatility in the wake of allegations that the parent company Adani Group was involved in stock manipulation and accounting fraud.
The Adani Group had then said in a statement, “Given the unprecedented situation and the current market volatility, the company aims to protect the interest of its investing community by returning the FPO proceeds and withdraws the completed transaction.”
Forbes magazine has also reported on what it said was “evidence the Adani Group likely bought into” the $2.5 billion share sale. The involvement of Elara Capital and Monarch Networth Capital – two entities that Hindenburg Research had alleged were linked to Adani – in the share sale “raises questions about whether any of Adani’s personal funds were deployed to help meet the $2.5 billion target”, the business magazine wrote.
“The only way Adani can actually resolve this issue is to illustrate who did buy all of the shares. It would be my speculation that there were insiders,” the report had quoted Tim Buckley, a former investment banker at Citigroup and director at Australia-based Climate Energy Finance, who has been studying the Adani Group for over a decade, as saying.
‘PM is scared of my next speech, which is going to come on Adani’
During the press meet, the Congress leader insisted that he has been targeted for raising uncomfortable questions about the saffron party’s relationship with the corporate house.
“Please understand why I have been disqualified. I have been disqualified because the Prime Minister is scared of my next speech. He is scared of the next speech that is going to come on Adani. I have seen it in his eyes. So, he is terrified of the next speech that is going to come and they don’t want that speech to be in Parliament. That is the issue, that is why first the distraction, now the disqualification,” he said.
Following Gandhi’s press conference, BJP leader Ravishankar Prasad addressed the media on the issue where he said: “We don’t have to defend Adani, BJP never defends Adani, but BJP doesn’t target anyone either.”
The BJP claimed that Gandhi has been disqualified in accordance with a Supreme Court ruling. Prasad spoke about the international business deals the Adani group engaged in during the Congress rule from 2004 to 2014 and also about its investments in Congress-ruled states.
PM Modi or the Modi government are yet to reply in Parliament to the substance of the charge of Adani’s proximity to them. Adani has denied that his longstanding connection with the prime minister has led to preferential treatment.
(Courtesy: The Wire.)
Another article in ‘The Wire’ by Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta, “Rahul Gandhi Matters to the BJP Because He Targets its Soft Spots – Nationalism, Incorruptibility”, adds:
The alacrity with which the Lok Sabha secretariat moved to disqualify Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha within 24 hours of his conviction in a criminal defamation case has only cemented the perception that the sentencing of the Congress leader and Wayanad MP was politically motivated.
Section 103 of the Constitution clearly states that any disqualification order of an MP has to come from the President of India in consultation with the Election Commission of India. In other circumstances, the bureaucratic chain involved in the process would have taken days, if not weeks.
Rahul Gandhi, however, is a special case. The tallest leader of India’s largest opposition party needed to be served as an example of the rising unilateralism that has come to characterise the Narendra Modi government.
The Congress has said that it will fight Gandhi’s conviction and disqualification in courts but it appears that the developments have fuelled the beleaguered grand-old party’s appetite for street fights. The political fight ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will undoubtedly be led by Gandhi himself. The biggest political programme that the Congress has led since 2014 is the Bharat Jodo Yatra that Gandhi led. Since then, he has been at his aggressive best, picking on the Modi government on its Achilles heel – nationalism and corruption.
In each of his speeches and conversations, Gandhi has come down heavily on the Modi government’s alleged miscommunications on the Chinese aggression in India’s borders in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. Similarly, his attacks on the Prime Minister for allegedly facilitating the Adani group’s steep rise over the last few years has somehow touched BJP’s raw nerve.
It is widely assumed that Gautam Adani, the business house chief, has benefited from his long friendship with Modi. The US-based investment firm Hindenburg Research expose of the Adani group’s financial scams lent credibility to the allegations of cronyism and corruption that Gandhi has been alleging against the Modi government. Not only did the Hindenburg Research’s resort boosted the grand-old party’s confidence but also gave it a ready platform to begin its 2024 Lok Sabha campaign.
Both these issues are BJP’s soft spots. Since 2014, the BJP has never batted an eyelid on a range of issues like demonetisation, or the allegedly poor implementation of GST, or even issues like unprecedented price rise and unemployment. It could still come across as a forward-looking party, even if it came with a strong dose of Hindutva and authoritarianism.
But the twin issues of Chinese aggression and the Adani controversy were aimed at BJP’s biggest strengths – nationalism and incorruptibility. That these issues were being spoken about by the opposition at a time when the Prime Minister is being projected as “a statesman” with a popular appeal beyond India, a leader steering the “Mother of Democracy”, and as a global leader capable of resolving international conflicts and impasses surely had the potential to hurt the BJP’s momentum in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
However, the way Rahul Gandhi has been hounded over the last month shows a different side of the BJP. It appears to be unnerved. Firstly, many sections of his speech on the Adani controversy and alleged cronyism in the Lok Sabha were expunged. Then the BJP cadre came all guns blazing to first distort Gandhi’s remarks in the UK and then demand an apology for those comments. Hardly has any opposition member of the parliament been on such a vigorous attack from the Treasury benches. Gandhi was not even allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha before he apologised. The political tussle became so intense that the treasury benches did not allow parliamentary proceedings to take their own course, disrupting the House almost every day, forcing frequent adjournments, and eventually passing the budget without any discussion.
Then came the CJM court’s sentencing and Gandhi’s quick disqualification. This is the first instance when Gandhi was not derided as “pappu” or ridiculed by the BJP when he upped his ante. The concerted singling out of Gandhi and his eventual disqualification, even as 16 opposition parties demanded a JPC probe on the Adani group’s alleged liasoning with the Modi government, indicates that the saffron campaigns to write off Gandhi too were attempts to prevent him from becoming a serious challenger to Modi.
In all his speeches, Modi has taken aim only at the Congress, never at other opposition parties, knowing fully well that only the Congress that is placed directly against the BJP in over 250 Lok Sabha seats could emerge as a serious challenger to the saffron regime. By trying to silence Gandhi, the BJP may have only ended up justifying his campaign that Indian democracy is at risk, and that the Modi government’s authoritarian tendencies have compromised public institutions. The Bharat Jodo Yatra, after all, could be deemed a success, going by the BJP’s disproportionate – and poorly-timed – aggression against Gandhi.
Gandhi’s sentencing and disqualification could prove to be a blessing in disguise both for him and his party. With the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress under the leadership of Gandhi could run a campaign built on emotive and material issues to emerge as a serious alternative. The party has received an impetus in the form of disproportionate punishment for Gandhi. The Congress will only need to advance an alternative political and economic vision to enthuse the electorate and re-emerge as a solid opposition.
Gandhi’s disqualification has also garnered unconditional support from a range of opposition leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, YSR Jagan Reddy and many others – all of whom are grappling with the Centre’s political pressure. It may also be the right time for the Congress to unite opposition parties on a range of issues. Even if many opposition parties eventually do not come together in elections, ideological unity on issues like rising authoritarianism, price rise, unemployment, alleged targeting of opposition leaders, and growing social disharmony may go a long way in building the opposition’s narrative.
BJP, well aware of such possibilities, has already begun to push the argument that Gandhi’s Kolar statement targeting economic offenders Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi and equating them with the Prime Minister insulted the entire OBC communities of India – and that his sentencing because of the very statement was justified. None other than BJP president J.P. Nadda floated the narrative on the very day of his disqualification when Gandhi appeared to be drawing sympathy and solidarity from diverse quarters.
Gandhi is clearly the underdog at the moment. His disqualification shows that the Modi government has scant respect for institutions and a democratic, level-playing political field in its pursuit to win elections and establish saffron hegemony. The message that any dissent will be criminalised, and that it didn’t matter if it came from a journalist, an activist, a student, or even one of the most important political leaders of the country, could not be clearer than this as it is now. The opposition leaders’s show of support to Gandhi, despite their differences, concretely establishes the existing political polarisation in India.
Gandhi has shown a fighting spirit as both his tweets and statements indicate. His party leaders have shown similar courage by not buckling under pressure. Gandhi has been projecting himself as a leader with no particular love for power – a saintly, unassuming leader who can fight to protect India’s diversity and its people. He has shown his moral resolve in the last few months. It may be the right time for him to take that aspect of his personality to the people, irrespective of the possibility that he may not be eligible to contest the next Lok Sabha elections.
(Courtesy: The Wire.)
