Industrialist Gautam Adani is merely a front for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged on Tuesday, citing a purported conversation he had with an unidentified Bharatiya Janata Party leader.
The Aam Aadmi Party chief made the statement while addressing the Delhi Assembly.
The Kejriwal-led outfit, along with other Opposition parties, has been accusing the BJP-led Centre of showing favouritism towards the crisis-ridden Adani Group. The Aam Aadmi Party has taken part in protests seeking an investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee into allegations that the conglomerate engaged in stock manipulation.
Kejriwal on Tuesday claimed that the Centre is not allowing a parliamentary investigation as this would cause trouble for Modi, and not Adani.
“[The BJP leader said that] Adani is merely the front, and all the money is being put in by Modi,” the Aam Aadmi Party chief said. “Adani is just a manager who gets 10-20% commission.”
Kejriwal claimed that when reports said that Adani had become the world’s second-richest man, it was in fact Modi who assumed that position. “Now, Modi ji dreams of becoming the richest man in the world,” the chief minister said.
Kejriwal said that when Modi went to Sri Lanka, he put pressure on the country’s former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to award a wind power project to the Adani Group. He appeared to have been referring to an allegation made by Ceylon Electricity Board chairperson MMC Ferdinando.
The senior official had later retracted his statement and quit his post after Rajapaksa “vehemently denied” the claims made by him.
On Tuesday, Kejriwal said that the Adani Group also benefited from similar agreements signed with Bangladesh and Israel. “They weren’t for Adani, they were for Modi himself,” he alleged.
The Aam Aadmi Party chief alleged that Modi is the country’s “most corrupt prime minister” since Independence. “On top of that, he is less educated, so anybody gets him to sign any document, and no one understands anything,” he said.
Kejriwal asserted: “The current government has looted the country more in the past eight years than what the Congress did in 75 years.”
On January 24, United States-based firm Hindenburg Research alleged in a report that the Adani Group pulled the “largest con in corporate history”. It accused the ports-to-power conglomerate of manipulating stocks and improperly using tax havens.
The BJP has denied allegations of favouritism towards the Adani Group. On February 14, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the party has “nothing to hide or be afraid of” in connection with the controversy.
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