Since the last two years, Adani Group’s name has been frequently making headlines as it has been at the centre of storms of relentless hitjob and smear campaigns. Starting from short-seller Hindenburg’s malicious report to the latest US indictment against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani in an alleged bribe case, this crusade against the group has only intensified and is well-coordinated as far as their “timings” are concerned.
As per the latest reports on the Adani Group indictment saga, the New York court unsealed an arrest warrant for billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani last month following his indictment on charges of bribery and fraud. According to India Today, Judge Robert M. Levy ordered it to be unsealed on October 31, 2024.
As part of a coordinated onslaught against the Indian port-to-cement conglomerate, the Kenya government has also cancelled a $600 million deal that would have revamped the Kenya Airport in return for Adani operating it for 30 years.
Conspicuously, attacks on the Adani Group have grown with his rise to the list of richest persons. It is interesting to see that Adani is the only Indian tycoon that is growing at the fastest pace that only ends up benefiting the Indian economy and his rapid rise is the only thing that is being put under suspicion while basing his alleged nexus with PM Modi.
Consider Rahul Gandhi for a moment, in his latest press conference, he named BJP state governments in Rajasthan, and Maharashtra, and the former BJP govt in Chhattisgarh for sealing the deal with the Adani Group. However, he deliberately missed the names of Congress governments in Himachal Pradesh and Telangana. In fact, Telangana’s Revanth Reddy government has taken donations from the Adani group for skill development in the state. And the world has always remained suspicious of this kind of financial transaction. Nonetheless, had it been a BJP-ruled state, would Rahul Gandhi not have highlighted the same?
Apart from that he also hinted to people of a crusade running behind Adani and Centre, of which he is also a part. He said PM Modi’s credibility has been torn adding that people should think that, “What we are doing and we have done very successfully is to prove to every single Indian youngster that Mr Adani and Mr Modi are the same…I must say that the team is doing a phenomenal job. We are working in Congress, other opposition parties, and there are many many people, who are, you know, activists who are working and I guarantee you that the structure is going to collapse, it’s not going to survive”.
Suffice enough to say that only the opposition is not working but there are activists working. It is quite obvious what counts in activists this day. Moreover, his statement reflects that a campaign is underway to tarnish the image of PM Modi which otherwise is not possible, at least for Congress whom the public has punished for corruption.
Nevertheless, the team is doing a phenomenal job. But why the team is sticking together? Strictly speaking, any corporate giant’s growth is best for the home country.
After the IT revolution, the US promoted Google, Facebook, and other companies aggressively as wherever they did business, the US got good cuts in taxes.
As the Indian economy is growing, India also needs more conglomerates. Adani Group has rapidly grown into the business from power to port and whatnot. And so stopping the group is also a necessity for many countries.
After Covid-19, the supply chains became vulnerable. Adani Group seized the opportunity to ace the supply chains by aggressively investing in ports, airports, and countries in mineral-rich Africa and Latin America. Investing in Haifa port was just another masterstroke by the conglomerate.
This takes him to a direct rivalry with Chinese firms linked to One Nation, One Belt. This was the basic reason why Kenyan protests were fueled against Adani. US indictment was just used as a plank to cancel the deal.
Holistically, in this bipolar contest of trade and geoeconomics, neither the US nor China could allow aspiring India’s conglomerate to become a trailblazer for others.
However, it would not be entirely true to say that the US and China, as a state, are collectively working for it, but when Congress with the help of their activists attacks Adani for political gains, there is no harm for the US and China in exacerbating the situation.
Besides, Rahul Gandhi’s activist friends, including prominent anti-Modi and anti-India George Soros, have deep connections with the forces running these states.
Rahul Gandhi’s tone and demand for Adani’s arrest are sufficient enough to say that what he only cares about is how to destabilise the government using Gautam Adani and his high-potential group as scapegoats whether it costs India an opportunity to present a world-class conglomerate on the global landscape.
Needless to say, it is foolish to expect more from Rahul Gandhi and Congress as short-term political gains have been the priority for the grand old party’s first family even at the altar of India’s future and Indian companies.
As far as corruption is concerned, whether Adani did it or not is yet to be decided in a court of law, but scam charge-tainted Gandhis and the ones who lost power because of rampant ‘corruption’, have issued judgement, which is both hilarious and concerning.