Breaking the silence on the controversy surrounding businessman Gautam Adani, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said the BJP has nothing to hide or be afraid of in the Adani-Hindenburg hullabaloo and refuted all the allegations of “favouritism and crony capitalism” levelled by some opposition parties.
In an interview with the news agency ANI, Shah said “Nobody has been able to level such allegation against the BJP till date.” In a retort at the Congress, he said “During their (Congress) era, agencies be it CAG or CBI, they had registered cases taking cognizance of corruption. There were scams of Rs 12 lakh crore.”
The Parliament watched loud scenes over the Adani issue during the Budget session, with the opposition alleging the government is ducking discussion on the matter. They also demanded constituting a joint parliamentary committee to probe the alleged irregularities in the manner in which the Adani group conducts its businesses, pointed out in a report by the US-based Hindenburg Research.
Also read: Hindenburg hinders the prospects of Gautam Adani
Amit Shah added it will not be appropriate for him to comment as the Supreme Court has taken cognisance of the matter. 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,” he said.
The Centre on Monday accepted the apex court’s suggestion for a retired judge-led committee to study the recent alarming fall of Adani group shares following the report and recommend improvements in statutory and regulatory regimes governing the securities market to protect investors against such future events.
“The government is of the firm opinion that the existing structures and regimes, both statutory and regulatory, along with markets regulator Sebi and related agencies are fully competent to deal with the incident that happened recently,” solicitor general Tushar Mehta told the SC bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala.
The opposition had also voiced concerns about the exposure of government entities like LIC and SBI in Adani group companies. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had alleviated fears, saying the exposure is negligible, and the stabilities of the entities will not be affected.
