Political mud-slinging, with the opposition and ruling parties, aiming fresh salvo at each other, has ensued the bribery charges that has been slapped on billionaire Gautam Adani, already a focal point of the political narrative in the country. Adani and seven others, including his nephew Sagar Adani, have been indicted in New York over his role in a $265 million bribery scheme.
While the opposition has slammed the ruling BJP for safeguarding Adani, the BJP has highlighted that the states that received the bribes were opposition-ruled.
“All the States mentioned here were Opposition ruled during that time. So, before you pontificate, answer on the bribes the Congress and its allies accepted. Besides, an Indian Court can similarly, on legitimate grounds, accuse American firms of bribing US government officials, to deny access to Indian markets. Should we then allow law to take its course and the concerned corporate to defend or plant ourselves in domestic politics of a foreign country?” said Amit Malviya, BJP's National Information & Technology Department in-charge.
US authorities said Adani and the other defendants, agreed to pay the bribes to Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years, and develop India's largest solar power plant project.
“In furtherance to the bribery scheme, the co-conspirators, through Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani, Vineet Jaain, and others had offered and promised to Indian government officials Rs 2,029 crore (approximately $265 million) in bribes in exchange for Indian government officials causing the state electricity distribution companies to execute PSAs under the Manufacturing Linked Project, which could benefit the Indian Energy Company’s subsidiaries and the US issuer,” the indictment stated, pointing to electricity distribution companies for states of Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh between July 2021 and February 2022. Chhattisgarh was then ruled by Congress, Odisha by BJD, Tamil Nadu by DMK, Andhra Pradesh by YSRCP, and J&K ruled by the Centre.
Congress MP and General Secretary in-charge Communications, Jairam Ramesh, said, "All of this is consistent with a long record of fraud and criminality carried out with impunity with the obvious protection of the Prime Minister. The fact that it has taken a foreign jurisdiction to properly investigate Adani only shows how Indian institutions have been captured by the BJP, and how decades of institutional development have been undone by greedy and power hungry leaders."
All India Trinamool Congress member Mahua Moitra slammed SEBI and SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch as ‘spineless’.
Here’s how people reacted to the Adani bribery charges.
The Adani Group faced immediate repercussions following a short-seller attack in February 2023, which led to a significant decline in the shares of its listed companies. The stocks saw a drop ranging from 10-20 per cent, reflecting the impact of the attack on the conglomerate.
In a related development, Adani Green Energy decided to cancel its plans to raise $600 million through US dollar-denominated bonds. Although the bond had been priced, the company withdrew it in light of the recent events.