India’s image internationally takes a beating thanks to the Adani and Modi combine | Arun Srivastava

Narendra Modi’s ostrich-like behaviour and sedulous silence on his relations with the business baron Adani and why he has subverted the institutions of governance to help and protect him, has been quite mystifying. He must be having a prodigious nature of interest, either financial or personal, which makes him stake his image and political career at stake. Else there is no reason that Modi would allow himself to turn vulnerable to public criticism and outcry.

There is no denying that the democratic institutions have been witnessing serious nature of decay and recession during Modi’s rule, but the institution has been suffering deficit of peoples’ trust for his simple act of going out of way to protect Adani. The institutions haave declined to such an extent that people around the globe have started saying that “No country is a better example of democratic recession than India”.

A recently developed phrase “Pradhan Mantri Billionaire Badhao - Billionaire Bachao - Billionaire Banao Yojana” has been making rounds of the political circle. People cite the rise of Adani from rags to riches during last twenty years, after he developed proximity to Modi. It is said this is the only successful scheme of Modi government and unfortunately it has not received desired media attention. Significantly rise of Adani has gone hand in hand with Modi’s ascent to power in Gujarat in 2001. As a ‘true friend’, Modi has been relentless in improving the lot of his ‘good’ friends. During his tenure in Gujarat, Adani Enterprises’ assets grew by 5,000%. Adani empire was built on large loans he took from the banks. In 2015, the Adani group had Rs. 92,000 crore debt on its books, earning a place in a list called ‘House of Debt’ – compiled by Credit Suisse.

Notwithstanding the saffron ecosystem and Modi’s Andha Bhakts have been putting their best to shield Modi, it is conspicuous that he will find it increasingly difficult to distance himself from the latest controversy erupting around Adani.

A New York judge has issued arrest warrants for Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani for violating antifraud provisions of federal securities laws, including the FCPA, by deceiving US investors about their anti-corruption practices. Gautam Adani must have dared to show middle finger to the US securities laws to secure over $3 billion in loans and bonds for the company while concealing the corruption from lenders and investors without the assured support of his best friend Narendra Modi, who has been promiting his business interest through his foreign visits.

Adani and associates have been charged with ‘conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements’. Geoff Law, the coordinator of AdaniWatch for the Bob Brown Foundation has called on Australian PM Anthony Albanese to investigate Adani Group’s business dealings in Australia.

Adani was confident that American establishment cannot harm him with Modi taking care of his business interest. This fraud was first reported by Blooomberg in March. Since then, Rahul Gandhi has been consistently attacking Adani and also Modi for helping him. But Modi is unmoved. He is not bothered of what Rahul is saying. Rahul last year on the floor of Lok Sabha had accused him of patronising and promoting corporate honcho Adani who allegedly indulged in financial irregularities and fraud, but Modi sitting on the treasury benches did not prefer to rebut his accusations.

It was expected that Modi would use the opportunity to steer clear of the charges levelled by Rahul, which were quite serious. Instead, he preferred to resort to his usual style of hurling jibes and jumlas. Rahul sought to know from the PM about his relations with Adani. Shockingly, Modi blatantly resorted to a rightist strategy to suppress the democratic demand by using majoritarian arguments. By doing so, he was setting the most dangerous precedent. Modi simply took a dig at Rahul Gandhi for his speech in Parliament on February 7 where he had alleged that the government tweaked rules in favour of Adani.

Adani’s affrontery to the US accusation must be appreciated. The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has issued a five-count criminal indictment of Gautam Adan. The charges include promising more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts, conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud, and orchestrating “a multi-billion dollar scheme” to defraud U.S. investors and global financial institutions by giving “false and misleading statements”. While Adani outright denied the charges, he also promised to take all legal recourse against the US Department of Justice (DoJ) allegations. The Adani Group has called the allegations baseless and said they are innocent until proven guilty. He however did not say any onwarrant of arrest issued by an American court.

It worth recalling that he had also thtreatened Hindenburg with legal action after it came out its revelations that the Adani Group had accumulated significant debt, which raised questions about its ability to meet financial obligations. The report suggested that there was a lack of effective regulatory oversight concerning the Adani Group’s operations. It obviously implied that so called investigations by India’s Securities and Exchange Board (Sebi) into the group’s transactions had not yielded substantial results due to alleged political interference. Significantly Sebi had issued a show cause notice to Hindenburg, alleging that it colluded with a US asset manager to use non-public information for short-selling Adani stocks. Hindenburg refuted these allegations, calling them “nonsense” and asserting that Sebi had neglected its responsibility to investigate the Adani Group adequately.

Top political sources are confident that Adani would not be arrested and a political solution to the crisis would be worked out soon, even before Donald Trump takes the charge of the presidential office. These sources maintain that Trump has already been briefed of the prevailing situation and how allowing the issue to drag would damage Indian interest. Adani also enjoys close ties to US President-elect Donald Trump. Some US experts nurse hope that Trump could put a stop to the case, but it is yet not clear. Modi claims that Trump is his best friend, but whether he would like tp bail out his friend Modi depends on the situation that would emerge after he is sworn in. One will have to see if Trump would prefer to be involved, or whether his powers as president would let him. It is worth mentioning that Adani while congratulating Trump on his win in a post on X has promised to invest $10bn in US energy projects.

Only a politically naive would believe that Adani be arrested. With Modi around, no power on earth could lay its hand on him. Who controls whom in not clear, whether Modi controls Adani or vice versa, but one thing is certain Adani’s wishes have to be fulfilled at any cost. It is an open secret that Modi has used his foreign tours and diplomatic moves to promote the business interest of Gautam Adani and help him expand his international business interests in ports, airports, electricity, coal mining and weapons. Modi hugging the state heads and falling on their bodies was more intended to push and promote Adani. As early as 2015, a prominent Indian newspaper reported that everywhere that Modi went, ’Adani was sure to go’. It is also a fact his visits did not further India’s cause and interest. This support has not always helped India. On the contrary, by brazenly promoting the oligarch’s ambitions.

Though Godi media and the Andha Bhaktas projected him as the only Indian leader who has conquered the world, on the contrary he has lowered the image and dignity of the country. What the foreign state heads had thought of the Indian prime minister, who was pushing the interest of his chum. Modi used his office to promote the business interest of Adani in the neighbouring countries. He virtually bullied them. This has resulted in India straining its relation with them.

Today no neighbouring country has a friendly relation with India. Modi has hurt country’s relations with the neighbours as well as with other countries. It is internationally known that Adani accompanies Modi on all his foreign tours. He used to appear at the scene when Modi was in the midst of discussion with the state heads. Modi managed to secure business in Kenya for him. Adani’s operations in Australia, Bangladesh, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Tanzania have fell fell through, often to the detriment of India’s interests.

It is an open secret that popular protests had emerged in Kenya on Adani’s involvement in a project to lease and modernise the country’s main airport. Kenya’s citizens, led by several civil society organisations, gathered in large numbers in the national capital, Nairobi, to oppose the project, which they claimed was against the country’s interests. Even large-scale protests were held in Bangladesh against Adani.

Though the US court has issued warrant of arrest against Adani the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has initiated a formal civil lawsuit against Adani and his associates, seeking monetary penalties and enforcement of US securities laws. Adani is too willing to pay the penalty and settle the matter.

No doubt Modi has received public snubbing. But one thing is certain that the entire operation has the tacit blessing of the RSS supremo, the boss of the saffron ecosystem. It is hard to believe that he was unaware of the anti national activities of Modi. The audacity of the saffron leaders could be understood from the simple fact that even at this stage they are not tired of dismissing the US DoJ action. Party spokes person clarified that any allegations against the Adani group should be addressed by the company itself, asserting that "the law will take its own course." He stressed that Rahul Gandhi’s attempts to target Modi’s credibility have failed since 2002, highlighting that despite sustained efforts, the prime minister remains highly respected, recently received highest civilian award from a foreign nation.

Strange the party tried to portray Rahul’s criticism as fueling economic instability, undermining India’s economy by raising baseless charges. Shocking indeed US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has alleged that Gautam Adani personally met then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy in August 2021 to address the state’s reluctance to sign an agreement. After the meeting Rs 1,750 crore bribe was paid to a ’high-ranking’ Andhra official. The SEC filing mentioned that "at or in connection with that meeting, Gautam Adani paid or promised a bribe to Andhra Pradesh government officials" to enter into power supply agreements with the SECI. Adani has been charged by US prosecutors for paying around Rs 22,000 crore in bribes to Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms for solar power contracts.

One development is quite noticeable. Modi came out with the slogan ’ek hai toh safe hai’, only after Bloomberg expose. Obviously it has got wider implication. In a statement, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged that Adani – a close ally of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised Indian officials more than $250m in bribes to secure energy contracts being funded by international investors, including some from the US. Adani personally held meetings with Indian government officials between 2020 and 2024 to discuss the bribes. Unfortunately the SEBI which was awae of the illegal operation did not put a brake. In March 2023 it had it had told Supreme Court that it had found no evidence of fraud

Modi has been stubborn in protecting Adani was witnessed today, on the opening day of the Winter session of the parliament. The opposition targeted the Modi government over the US indictment of Adani, his nephew Sagar and six others in the alleged bribery case. Chair in both Houses of Parliament refused permission for the debate and adjourned proceedings for the day.

Opposition was heard quipping; ‘Charge is on Adani, but BJP is feeling the pain’. Incredible. Opposition leaders seek to know why Modi does not want a public debate on the Adani issue."The Modani issue rocked both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha today,” said Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, using the hybrid word his party has coined for the proximity between Modi and Adani. Members and the opposition leaders in both houses vented anger that such an important issue was not being taken up.

Instead of adjourning the House, the Modi government could have discussed it. It shows that the government does not want to allow any public debate on the Adani issue. Some BJP members tried to justify by saying that the case sub judice ( in US court). But the BJP leadership ought to realise that Indian officials have been accused of being offered a huge bribe. Moreover, the issue has been raised by the [US] Department of Justice. It shows there is something wrong.

The members were absolutely right in saying that Adani gave bribes to officials under the Modi government and sold expensive electricity to the people of India. The Supreme Court has said there should be competitive bidding. But Modi and his government are running away from discussion.