Govt agencies extending undue favours to Adani group: Cong

Amritsar, August 22

The Congress party today accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of helping his corporate friends at the cost of the country and lawful businesses. Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, party spokesperson Charan Singh Sapra claimed that investigative agencies were helping the Adani group secure monopoly over ports, airports, cement and other industries.

“For the last 10 years, the PM has been concerned only about helping his corporate friends. He has done the ‘Adanikaran’ of the country,” he commented.

Demanding an inquiry by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), Sapra said that the scam goes far beyond the revelations made by the reports of Hindenburg Research. “Scams related to the Adani group are in every dimension of the political economy,” he alleged.

The Congress spokesperson said that extraordinary favouritism shown by public sector banks and institutions, especially the SBI and LIC, in buying Adani shares have come out in the open. They also extended loans to key projects including the Adani copper plant in Mundra, the airport in Navi Mumbai and the UP expressway project, he added.

“Is it not the duty of the government to ensure that important public sector financial institutions are more conservative in their investments than their private sector counterparts,” he said and asked if instructions were issued to these public sector units to extend support to Adani group.

Sapra also accused the Modi government of subordinating India’s foreign policy interests to the needs of Adani enterprises at the cost of India’s position in the neighbourhood.

“Adani imports coal from Australia to generate power in Jharkhand and supply to Bangladesh. It is the only company that is allowed to do so through a power purchase agreement which has been very controversial. Now, the company is allowed to sell that power to India itself,” said Sapra. He alleged that the PM has handed over India’s strategic relationship with Israel to a single company.