Govt needs to ‘hand over’ India’s meals grain logistics to Adani Group, alleges Congress

By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Congress alleged on Thursday that the federal government needs to “hand over” India’s meals grain logistics to the Adani Group and that such a “conspiracy” was solely briefly foiled by the farmers’ agitation that pressured the withdrawal of three farm legal guidelines.

The Congress has been persistent on its assault on the federal government weeks after Adani Group shares took a beating on the bourses after US-based quick vendor Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations, together with fraudulent transactions and share-price manipulation.

The Gautam Adani-led group has dismissed the fees as lies, saying it complies with all legal guidelines and disclosure necessities.

Posing a set of three inquiries to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a part of the celebration’s “Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun” collection, Congress common secretary Jairam Ramesh stated Thursday’s questions associated to the “hard work” the Modi authorities had put into “handing over” India’s meals grain logistics to the Adani Group.

आज PM उस स्टेडियम में,जिसका नाम उन्होंने अपने जीवन काल में ही अपने नाम पर करवा लिया है,वहां खुद को तरह-तरह से सम्मानित करवा रहे हैं।

ऐसे में “HAHK – हम अडानी के हैं कौन” श्रृंखला का क्वार्टर सेंचुरी पूरा होना भी एक संयोग है।ये हैं आज के 3 सवाल।

चुप्पी तोड़िए प्रधानमंत्री जी। pic.twitter.com/yRRF0Zqbn9

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) March 9, 2023

“A lap of honour around the stadium he got named after himself in his own lifetime is a good occasion for heralding a quarter century of pointed questions with ‘Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun’,” Ramesh tweeted, referring to the presence of Prime Minister Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese throughout a Test cricket match between India and Australia in Ahmedabad.

He alleged that the “conspiracy” appears to have been solely briefly foiled by the farmers’ agitation of 2020-21 that pressured the federal government to withdraw the “black farm laws”.

“The publication ‘AdaniWatch’ has reported that on October 13, 2022, the Supreme Court of India quashed a June 30, 2021 Gujarat High Court judgement that favoured Adani Ports and SEZ over the government-owned Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), and said that the High Court judgement ‘is not sustainable in law’,” Ramesh claimed.

The company was arrange in 1957 to help India’s meals storage wants and saved 55 lakh tonnes of meals grains in 2021-22, he stated.

“The Supreme Court observed that the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution had supported the CWC’s stand while the Ministry of Commerce and Industry had aided Adani’s bid to take control of two major CWC warehouses near Mundra port by not supporting the denotification of the warehouses as part of the Adani SEZ,” he claimed, citing the publication.

“The judgement stated that ‘it does not augur well for the Union of India to speak in two contradictory voices’ and that ‘two departments of the Union of India cannot be permitted to take stands which are diagonally opposite’,” Ramesh stated.

Why did the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, then headed by Nirmala Sitharaman, take a stand against a strategic public-sector company and in help of the prime minister’s “favourite business group”, Ramesh requested.

“Would she have the courage to do so without clear directions from above?” he stated.

“This Adani-inspired inter-ministerial battle was allowed to proceed even after Piyush Goyal turned Minister of Commerce and Industry (in May 2019) in addition to Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (in October 2020).

If a minister thought-about near company pursuits doesn’t take the initiative to help a public-sector unit that he’s answerable for, is it not logical to imagine that he’s as an alternative supporting the Adani Group to construct a robust ‘electoral bond’ with it?” Ramesh stated.

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Ramesh alleged that the whole nation is aware of that the motivation behind the “ill-conceived” farm legal guidelines was to “hand over” India’s agricultural logistics to a couple “close corporate cronies” of the prime minister.

“One of the biggest beneficiaries of the farm laws would have been Adani Agri Logistics which has become the major beneficiary of the Food Corporation of India’s silo contracts, the most recent award being one to set up 3.5 lakh metric tonnes of storage in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, Adani Farm-Pik was allowed to construct a near-monopoly on apple procurement in Himachal Pradesh, he alleged.

Is India’s public sector, painstakingly constructed over the previous 70 years, now decreased to being a car for the enrichment of the prime minister’s “corporate friends”, he requested.

Ramesh urged the prime minister to interrupt his “silence” on the problem.

OPINION | Hindenburg impact on the way forward for Adani shares: Part I

OPINION | Hindenburg impact on way forward for Adani Businesses: Part II

The Gautam Adani-led group has dismissed the fees as lies, saying it complies with all legal guidelines and disclosure necessities.googletag.cmd.push(perform() googletag.show(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); );

आज PM उस स्टेडियम में,जिसका नाम उन्होंने अपने जीवन काल में ही अपने नाम पर करवा लिया है,वहां खुद को तरह-तरह से सम्मानित करवा रहे हैं।
ऐसे में “HAHK – हम अडानी के हैं कौन” श्रृंखला का क्वार्टर सेंचुरी पूरा होना भी एक संयोग है।ये हैं आज के 3 सवाल।
चुप्पी तोड़िए प्रधानमंत्री जी। pic.twitter.com/yRRF0Zqbn9
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) March 9, 2023
“A lap of honour around the stadium he got named after himself in his own lifetime is a good occasion for heralding a quarter century of pointed questions with ‘Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun’,” Ramesh tweeted, referring to the presence of Prime Minister Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese throughout a Test cricket match between India and Australia in Ahmedabad.