Investigation on allegations against Adani needs to be carried out by a parliamentary committee or a Supreme Court-appointed panel, urge Opposition parties
With the Adani Group in a soup over the Hindenburg Research report, the Opposition parties in the country are going all out seeking a discussion in Parliament.
The leaders of the Opposition parties came together seeking a detailed probe into the Hindenburg allegations against Adani and they demanded that the investigation needs to be carried out by either a Joint Parliamentary Committee or a Supreme Court-appointed panel. It may be noted that the allegations of fraud against the Adani Group by Hindenburg Research had triggered a stock crash.
What we hear is that the Opposition outfits in Parliament have called upon the government to suspend the regular proceedings of the House so that the issue may be discussed. As per the leaders who have come together with this demand, the Adani Group’s continued share slide has put the Indian investors at great risk.
LIC, SBI see value erosion of $100 bn since charges came out
Significant is the fact that the state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and the State Bank of India (SBI) are among the prominent investors in the allegation-hit Adani Group. These two public sector companies have seen a value erosion to the tune of more than $100 billion, ever since the Hindenburg Research allegations flew thick and fast in public domain last week.
The demand from the parties came after leaders converged on Thursday morning to chart out a joint strategy to put pressure on the ruling dispensation during the ongoing Budget session of Parliament. The meeting of the senior leaders of various Opposition outfits decided that they needed to push the government to agree on a discussion regarding the Adani Group hullabaloo.
As many as 13 Opposition parties who met at the chambers of Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, decided on going ahead with their strategy. Among the prominent outfits were the Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party, DMK, Janata Dal-United, and the Left parties.
13 Opposition parties come together seeking probe
Among them, as many as nine Opposition outfits shot off a notice seeking discussion on the Adani stock crash. As Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge moved the motion in the Rajya Sabha, a similar plea was filed in the Lok Sabha by AAP leader Sanjay Singh and K Keshava Rao, an MP from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). This apart, Manickam Tagore, the Congress whip filed an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha.
Though the Adani group has rubbished the Hindenburg allegations, the Opposition parties are not willing to take the company’s stance at face value. It has been reported that Sanjay Singh, an MP from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has written to Prime Minister Modi, and also to the Enforcement Directorate, and CBI, urging the confiscation of Gautam Adani’s passport. This, Singh wrote, is to make sure that Adani also doesn’t flee from the country.
