- Thursday, February 27, 2025
Addressing a press conferencein Mumbai, Gandhi, showed a copy of The Guardian report that said how Adani family associates allegedly used opaque offshore funds to secretly invest millions into shares of their own Adani Group companies.
By: Shubham Ghosh
RAHUL Gandhi, one of India’s major opposition faces and a parliamentarian, has remarked that the country’s “global reputation is on the fire” and wanted a parliamentary investigation to be started by prime minister Narendra Modi after a report by The Guardian reported about years of alleged violations by the Adanis, one of India’s influential business families.
Addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the third meeting of the opposition alliance INDIA (Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance) in Mumbai on Thursday (31), Gandhi, who is a leader of the Indian National Congress, showed a copy of The Guardian report that outlined suspicions of associates of Adani family channeling substantial sums from undisclosed offshore accounts into shares of their influential Adani Group, a major conglomerate in the south Asian nation.
The article was based on documents found by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and shared with outlets such as the Guardian and the Financial Times.
The 53-year-old Gandhi demanded an immediate parliamentary probe into the Adani Group.
“Why is this one gentleman who is close to the prime minister, allowed to move [hundreds of millions] of dollars to pump up his share price and to use the money to capture Indian assets such as airports and ports?” Gandhi asked.
Modi is known to share a rapport with Gautam Adani, founder of the group, for the last two decades. While the business leader has denied having received any favourable treatment, the conglomerate has vastly expanded since Modi first became the prime minister in 2014 to become one of the biggest in India with monopolies over projects related to power and ports to coal and airports.
It has also bagged lucrative state infrastructure contracts.
Gandhi said he did not understand why the prime minister was not forcing an investigation into the matter and questioned the latter’s alleged silence.
He also said the revelations related to the Adanis raised questions over the transparency and integrity of India’s financial and economic systems ahead of the G20 summit in New Delhi where top world leaders such as US president Joe Biden and British prime minister Rishi Sunak will be present.
On Thursday, the Adani Group rejected the reports and said it has “complete faith” in the due process of law.
The share price for all Adani enterprises was down the same day after the reports, slumping collectively by more than three per cent, amounting to losses worth $4 billion (£3.2bn).
The Indian conglomerate found itself at the centre of a storm earlier this year after a US-based short seller accused it of manipulating stock, a charge which the company denied.
Gandhi had started questioning the Modi government on its alleged links to Adani and also staged a parliamentary walkout. However, he could not continue with his attack since he was found guilty in a defamation case and disqualified as a parliamentarian.
Last month, the opposition leader was reinstated as an MP after the Supreme Court of India suspended his defamation conviction.
The Guardian also reported that in early 2014, India’s financial regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) had been informed by another government body that the Adani Group might be involved in suspicious stock-market activity. However, after Modi’s election as the prime minister the same year, the probe reportedly disappeared.
