Mumbai: All India Congress Committee spokesperson Pawan Khera on Friday said a Joint Parliamentary Committee must be formed to probe the stock manipulation and accounting fraud allegations against the firms of billionaire Gautam Adani and accused the Narendra Modi government of hiding facts on the issue from citizens.
Adani Group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after US-based short-sheller Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share-price manipulation, against the business conglomerate led by Gautam Adani.
The Adani Group has dismissed the charges as lies, saying it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.
Addressing a press conference here, Khera said the Congress owes it to several crore policy holders of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and account holders of State Bank of India to get answers on the issue since it involved hard-earned money of taxpayers.
“People of the country need to know the sources of funding of the Adani group and shell companies. They want to know why core sectors of the country were handed over to one person. The Congress is not against corporates, but it is against the monopoly of one corporate,” Khera asserted.
If such “ease of doing business” was extended to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the Indian economy would have completely transformed, he added.
“The Modi government fears a JPC as all the details of its relationship with Adani group will come out in the open. Constitution of JPC is part of parliamentary procedure. People want to know why the Reserve Bank of India didn’t know about the exposure of banks in the Adani group,” he said.
Khera said even if the Modi government fails to accept the demand of the opposition parties on setting up a JPC, people of the country are watching.
“You can expunge the remarks of Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha but how can you expunge the name of Adani from the minds of the people as well as the everlasting love between the prime minister and Gautam Adani?” he asked.
