- Tuesday, April 23, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
The remark made by Sharad Pawar, one of India’s senior opposition politicians, that the Adani Group was seemingly targeted by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research has caused uneasiness among in the camp opposed to prime minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Indian National Congress, which has accused the Modi government of protecting the Adani Group led by billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani, who hails from the prime minister’s home state of Gujarat, said Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) might have its own view but 19 like-minded opposition parties are convinced that the charges brought against the group are real.
Pawar, 82, backed the Adani Group in an interview to NDTV and slammed the narrative around the US short seller’s report against the Indian company.
The Congress said all 20 like-minded opposition parties, including the NCP, are united and will be together in saving India’s Constitution and democracy from the “BJP’s assaults”, the Press Trust of India reported.
“Such statements were given by other individuals too earlier and there was a ruckus in parliament for a few days but this time out of proportion importance was given to the issue. The issues that were kept, who kept them, we had never heard of these people who gave the statement, what is the background. When they raise issues that cause a ruckus across the country, the cost is borne by the country’s economy, we cannot disregard these things. It seems this was targeted,” Pawar, who has been a federal minister and chief minister of the western state of Maharashtra and is currently a parliamentarian in Rajya Sabha or Upper House of Indian parliament, was quoted as saying. .
“An individual industrial group of the country was targeted, that is what it seems. If they have done anything wrong, there should be an inquiry,” the veteran leader said.
When senior Congress leader and parliamentarian Jairam Ramesh was asked about the NCP leader’s remarks, he said the latter may have its view but the rest of the 19 like-minded opposition parties are convinced that the “PM-linked Adani Group” issue is real and very serious.
“But all 20 like-minded Opposition parties including NCP are united and will be together in saving the Constitution & our democracy from the BJP’s assaults and in defeating the BJP’s divisive and destructive political, social and economic agenda,” he was quoted as saying by NDTV.
The Congress and the NCP are in alliance with the Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray in Maharashtra called the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front) which was in power till June last year.
India’s opposition unity has come under scanner repeatedly even as parties opposed to Modi’s BJP have failed to put up a significant challenge at the national level.
However, some sort of unity was seen after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from the parliament following his conviction by a court in Gujarat in a Modi surname defamation case.
