Both Houses of Parliament were rattled by the opposition’s demand for a debate on the most recent accusations against the Adani Group on Wednesday, forcing adjournments and ending the third day of the winter session.
Even as Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Jethmalani and former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi sent legal arguments outside Parliament claiming that neither Gautam Adani, the chairman of the Adani Group, nor his nephew Sagar were charged with bribery or obstruction of justice under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the government and opposition crouched inside the House.
However, the opposition denied the allegations, called for a joint parliamentary committee to look into “the entire Modani scam,” and said it had “global ramifications.”
The controversy comes as the chairman of the Adani Group and seven executives of his enormous conglomerate are the targets of a criminal indictment brought by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and a civil complaint brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
According to the allegation, the Adani Group and the Solar Energy Corp of India made an agreement for the Solar Energy Corp of India to purchase solar power at a specific price, which it would subsequently sell to the states. However, by agreeing to purchase the power at a high price, no state was willing to sign a Power Sales Agreement (PSA) with the company. Prosecutors claim that Adani provided incentives for the states to sign the deal.
The accusations have already been rejected by the Adani Group as unfounded. However, the INDIA bloc’s members have called for an investigation of the events on numerous occasions.
Opposition lawmakers, some of whom had attempted to introduce motions for adjournment, wanted talks on the Adani concerns and the recent unrest in the Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh shortly after the Lok Sabha meeting on Wednesday. Speaker Om Birla pleaded with the members to permit Question Hour to proceed, but numerous MPs chanted and stormed the Well of the House.
“Don’t you want to allow the House to run? Do you want to create a deadlock in the House? You want to create a deadlock in the House in a planned manner which is not appropriate,” he said before adjourning the House until noon. The protest continued after the proceedings resumed and the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day.
Similar to this, the Rajya Sabha was momentarily postponed in the morning due to protests by opposition members following Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar’s rejection of eighteen adjournment motions.
The notices related to the demand for the “constitution of a JPC to investigate the alleged misconduct, including corruption, bribery, financial irregularities of the Adani Group in connivance with other authorities”, violence in Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh and “rising” incidents of crime in the national capital.
In Sambhal, protesters blocked a second survey at Shahi Jama Masjid on Sunday, citing Hindu groups’ allegations that the mosque was constructed over a temple during the reign of Mughal emperor Babur in 1529. As a result, four people were killed and more than 20 police officers and officials were injured.
While other opposition parties issued identical notices on various matters, only members of Congress requested a discussion under Rule 267 on establishing a JPC to look into the accusations against the Adani group following the suspension of House activity.
Opposition MPs pushed for their desire to examine the Adani problem and other topics when the House reassembled after 30 minutes.
“You are only good when you use your pen. Your vocal chords are fine when you get a legitimate platform to speak, but with the permission of the Chair,” Dhankhar told Congress MP Jairam Ramesh amid protests from the Opposition. As members tried to raise a point of order, Dhankhar announced, “There can be no point of order when the House is in disorder.”
“As I have reiterated on several occasions, I thought it wise to bestow focused attention given the situation that we are entering the last quarter of the century of adoption of the Constitution of India. We had the great occasion to celebrate it yesterday. And therefore I emphasise that this House, the House of elders, the Upper House, the Council of States needs to reflect and follow well-established traditions that a ruling of the chair requires deference and not cause of differences,” Dhankhar said, before adjourning the House for the day.
“You think Adani is going to accept the charges? Obviously he is going to deny the charges. The point is that he has to be arrested as we have said. Hundreds of people are being arrested on tiny charges and the gentleman (Gautam Adani) has been indicted in the United States for thousands of crores, he should be in jail and the government is protecting him…” Lok Sabha leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said.
Trinamool Congress member Mahua Moitra also attacked Adani. “He is charged with bribing and making US participants part of bribe. He is charged with lying to US participants that he hadn’t bribed & he is charged with lying to US participants about existence of FBI investigations! Bribery is front & centre of the charges. @SEBI_India should be watching this closely,” she said.
“Today also both Houses of Parliament got adjourned because of the government’s stubborn unwillingness to agree to an immediate discussion on the latest revelations regarding the Adani Group. The Opposition continues to demand a JPC investigation into the entire Modani scam – which has global ramifications and has been born out of the cozy relationship between the PM and Mr. Gautam Adani,” Ramesh later posted on X.
On Thursday, the Congress’s parliamentary team will get bolstered as Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who won a recent parliamentary by-election from Wayanad, will take oath and participate in the House.
On Monday , the first day of the Winter Session, Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day in the morning session itself as the Opposition insisted on raising issues related to the Adani Group. There was no sitting of the House on Tuesday.
The ruling side is expecting that the Opposition’s aggressive demand for a JPC and a discussion on the Adani issue might subside next week but a section of the Opposition is adamant to continue the protests. The winter session is scheduled till December 20. Outside the House, two lawyers weighed in on the controversy.
Underlining that he was expressing his personal views, Rohatgi said that neither Gautam Adani nor his nephew Sagar Adani were named in charges related to bribery or obstruction of justice under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
This is the first specific reaction of the Adani Group to the charges detailed in a criminal indictment and a civil complaint by US prosecutors and regulators, although Rohatgi, who acknowledged that he has appeared for the Adani Group in some cases, emphasised that he was expressing his personal views.
“Count 1 and Count 5 of the US indictment, which relate to conspiracy to violate the FCPA and obstruction of justice, respectively, do not name Gautam Adani or his nephew (Sagar Adani). Some other individuals, including a foreign party, have been named. Whether they are related to Adani or not, they will respond. But I wanted to clear the air that Adanis have not been named in the counts related to the violation of FCPA and obstruction of justice,” Rohatgi said.
Senior advocate and BJP MP Mahesh Jethmalani, also spoke to the media and said that given the nature of the indictment, the “sketchy” evidence and some very important circumstances, it seemed to be a “hatchet job”.
“It is obvious now that part of the Democratic deep state apparatus…There are two deep states in America – the Republican deep state and the Democratic deep state. The Democratic deep state has, for some reasons after 2023, turned extremely hostile towards the present government. Coming to the indictment itself, first of all no offence is alleged in the indictment against any of the Adanis or Adani Green,” he said.
