The storm in the financial and political spheres arising from the Adani affair is yet to die down. While the markets have their own dynamics to settle the dust raised by the US short-seller Hindenburg Research, it is the resulting controversy in the political sphere which needs to be resolved without wasting much time, without diverting the government’s focus away from the more urgent task of… well, nation-building. Indeed, on Friday after absorbing the initial shock from the Hindenburg disclosure about the Adani companies being vastly over-leveraged, the markets seem to have recovered their mojo, registering modest gains both in Nifty and Sensex. Indeed after the bloodbath in the previous trading session, even the Adani companies’ shares reported small gains on Friday. Of course, the Adani shares had dropped so sharply in the immediate aftermath of the publication of the damning charges of fraud and financial skulduggery that we can’t see these attaining the super highs they were ruling at only a day before the Hindenburg bombshell. Gautam Adani, the group head, might have forfeited his status as the world’s third richest man, and slipped out of even the list of the first ten richest globally, but the point to bear in mind is that even after losing over a 100 billion dollars on the markets he continues to be a super billionaire.
Leaving behind the market-play in the Adani shares for the present let us return to the fall-out of the controversy on politics. It seemed to have come as manna from the heaven for the badly divided and demoralised Opposition. Latching on the Hindenburg Report, the Opposition leaders hammered the government, screaming of a nexus between the Gujarat tycoon and the Prime Minister. To put it bluntly, the Opposition alleged that without the Narendra Modi connection the LIC and SBI wouldn’t have lent money to the Adani companies. Whether there is a kernel of substance in the charge is not the point. The point is that the supersonic growth of the Adani group in the last nine years does evoke curiosity. Given that we don’t have tech billionaires in India, without government patronage it is well-nigh impossible to become extraordinarily wealthy in India.
This is not to suggest a quid pro quo between the Gujarati moneybag and a Gujarati Prime Minister. No, far from it. If there is one politician in India whose financial integrity is beyond reproach, it is Modi. We cannot emphasise enough the point about his financial integrity, especially in a polity teeming with thugs who plunder the nation at the first opportunity available. Having said that, we must note that the only way the budget session of Parliament can be salvaged from the Opposition onslaught is to concede the demand for a joint Parliamentary committee into the Adani affair. The government has nothing to fear from such a JPC. Once the Opposition demand is met, the Adani issue will move to the back burner. Past Parliamentary precedent can be a good guide for the government. The UPA government had to give in on the then Opposition demand for a JPC into the 2-G scam. Instead of countenancing a complete wash-out of the budget session the government should concede the demand for a JPC the first thing today when Parliament meets after the weekend break. This will disarm the Opposition, leave it bereft of an issue on which to agitate against the government and, more importantly, allow the treasury benches to return to the official legislative agenda. After all, the budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman needs to be discussed and approved by the honourable members. The ruling party needs to fully nail the charge of wrong-doing in the Adani affair. An all-party JPC, reflecting the numbers in the two Houses, alone will carry conviction. Nothing can be gained by stonewalling the demand for a JPC.
