Adani-Hindenburg issue: Any committee other than JPC will be exercise in ‘exoneration’, says Congress

New Delhi, February 16

The Congress on Thursday said it was imperative that the link between Adani and the ruling regime was examined by elected officials accountable to the public.

“If the Prime Minister and his government are to be held accountable, any committee other than a JPC will be nothing but an exercise in legitimisation and exoneration,” Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary (communication), said in a statement.

Ramesh said the Supreme Court while hearing petitions on the Adani-Hindenburg matter, discussed the creation of a committee of experts to examine the regulatory regime post the Adani-Hindenburg exposé. It directed the Government to give its submissions in this regard by Friday (February 17).

Ramesh said where the allegations were of close proximity between the ruling dispensation and the Adani group, the setting up of a committee with terms of reference proposed by GoI can hardly carry any insignia or reassurance of independence or transparency.

“It is an exercise initiated by the two principal actors—the government and the Adani group— to cover up, avoid, evade and bury all genuine scrutiny. It is becoming clear that the proposed Committee is part of a carefully orchestrated exercise by these vested interests to prevent any real investigation into the Adani group’s relationship with the ruling regime,” Ramesh said.

The Congress leader pointed out that the Solicitor General had, as per news reports, suggested that the Government will give the names for the Committee in a sealed cover, for the consideration of the Supreme Court.

An evaluation of the regulatory and statutory regime by experts is in no manner equivalent to an investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), Ramesh said. He added that such a committee (as proposed by the top court), however competently staffed, cannot be a substitute for a thorough investigation by parliamentarians into “the political-corporate nexus”.

“It simply does not have the authority, resources, or jurisdiction to examine the issues that then Opposition has raised,” Ramesh said.

The Congress leader said that over the years, several JPCs have been constituted to enquire into matters of public importance such as irregularities in securities and banking transactions as well as the stock-market scam of 2001. These reports have been crucial to the prosecutions that have followed and have provided the bedrock for legislative changes to prevent similar manipulative practice in future.