BJP | Adani Adani fiasco: Amit Shah says BJP has nothing to hide or fear, Congress can go to court with its allegations
New Delhi/IBNS: Amid persistent attacks by the Opposition, especially the Congress, alleging the BJP of favouring the Adani Group, Home Minister Amit Shah in an interview with news agency ANI said his party has “nothing to hide or be afraid of”.
Shah challenged Congress to move the court over the allegations and pointed out that Congress had also made false accusations about BJP in the Pegasus case.
In the interview, Shah maintained that it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to comment on the row triggered by the meltdown of Adani stocks as the matter was sub-judice, he told ANI, “The Supreme Court has taken cognizance of the matter. As a minister, if the Supreme Court is seized of the matter, it is not right for me to comment. But in this, there is nothing for the BJP to hide and nothing to be afraid of.”
Amit Shah’s comments came after Rahul Gandhi repeatedly linked Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani’s meteoric rise to Prime Minister Narendra Modi coming to power.
Rahul Gandhi has alleged that Gautam Adani jumped from the 609th to the second spot on the global rich list after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.
Defending the BJP-led government at the Centre, Shah said, ““Why don’t they go to court? When the Pegasus issue was raised, I had said go with proof to court, but they didn't. They only know how to create noise. Court toh humaare kabze mein nahin hai (The courts are not under our control).”
As Adani Group stocks faced a bloodbath in the stock market, following a report by US short-seller Hindenburg Research, accusing the highly diversified conglomerate of serious misconducts, including accounting fraud, and stock manipulations, the Opposition disparaged the government in the Parliament and demanded a probe by a joint party committee.
Amid the ruckus, several times the remarks by an Opposition MLA were expunged from Parliament’s records, attracting more criticism for the BJP.
Asked about this, Shah said, “This is not the first time when someone’s comments made in Parliament were expunged. The history of Parliament proceedings clearly shows this. Parliament is a place to hold discussion under rules, using parliamentary language.”
As share prices of the listed Adani companies crashed, the conglomerate lost over $100 billion while many foreign investors said they were holding participation in projects till the company came clear on the allegations.
Meanwhile, Adani rubbished the charges, calling it a "maliciously mischievous" reputational attack. The group's flagship entity Adani Enterprises pulled its secondary share offering, India's largest ever, because of the sharp sell-off.
Media reports said the conglomerate is hiring America’s fiercest law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz for a solution to deal with the crisis triggered by Hindenburg's accusations.
