Cong MP blasts Modi govt in LS for crony capitalism

Hyderabad: Reiterating the demand for the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe into the allegations against Adani Group, Congress MP and former TPCC President, Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy blasted the Narendra Modi government at the Centre for crony capitalism by handing over National assets to industrialist Gautam Adani.

Speaking on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in Lok Sabha on Wednesday night, Uttam alleged that favouritism has been done by the BJP-led Government to the Adani Group.

Citing examples, he said when the bidding for six airports at Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangalore, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram was done, the NITI Aayog and Finance Ministry had seriously objected to bidders such as Adani Group who had no prior airport management experience.

They also advised that no more than two airports be given to one company.

However, on the instruction of the power, all rules were tweaked and all six airports were given to the Adani Group. The existing guidelines were ignored to award Adani six airports for 50 years while earlier concession agreements for airports used to be for 30 years, he said.

The former TPCC President said that after Prime Minister Narendra Modi sworn-in on May 22, 2014 till now, Gautam Adani has been given 12 ports and terminals, eight airports, 14 city gas distribution licenses, 27 transmission lines, thousands of megawatts of power projects, defence contracts and numerous other government projects.

“In several cases, arm twisting was done to force the present promoters of ports and airports to sell off their stakes to Adani. Is it in the country’s interest that 30 percent of all air and sea traffic cargo is now routed through Adani’s airports and sea ports,” he alleged.

The Congress MP pointed out that the Hindenburg report has accused the Adani family members of operating offshore shell companies in tax havens such as Mauritius, the Caribbean Islands and the UAE. Such companies were used to overvalue the shares by as much as 1,000 percent and based on them, huge loans were borrowed from the market, he said.

Uttam said that following the exposure made by the Hindenburg, the market capitalisation of all 10 Adani Group stocks fell by over 51 percent with investors losing over Rs 10 lakh crore in just seven trading sessions.

However, he said that the Finance Ministry did not react and the Stock Exchange Board of India (SEBI) did not step in.

“In much smaller cases of corporate misgovernance in the past, Satyam Computers and IL&FS were taken over by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the senior Congress leader said and added that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervened in comparatively smaller financial misdemeanours by the Global Trust Band and Yes Bank.

But why are all the Central agencies in silent mode when the world’s biggest scam is unravelling” he asked while reiterating the demand that a Joint Parliamentary Committee or a Supreme Court-monitored probe be ordered immediately.

“Why was domestic manufacturing of Rafale assigned to Ambani, not HAL”, he also questioned.

Reddy also accused the Modi Government of doing a huge injustice to Telangana.

He said the NDA Government did not honour the Presidential Notification issued at the time of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.

“Injustice has been done to Telangana by the BJP government in not fulling the assurances given like the establishment of a railway coach factory at Kazipet, a steel plant at Bayyaram, a Tribal University, AIIMS at Bibinagar, the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) in Hyderabad and all other assurance given to the state,” Uttam said.

“On behalf of the people of Andhra Pradesh, I demand the scrapping of the move for the privatisation of Vizag Steel Plant,” he said.