With both the Houses of Parliament grinding to a halt for the second day on Friday, as 16 opposition parties met in the morning and stepped up their attack on the government, demanding an immediate discussion on the stock rout, there was a concerted attempt by the government to downplay the meltdown.
In the first statement emanating from the Centre, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Pralhad Joshi, categorically said that the Indian government had nothing to do with the issues of the Adani group. ‘‘The government has nothing to do with Adani matters,’’ he asserted.
Next came the testimonial from Finance Secretary TV Somanathan who a news magazine that the share meltdown of the Adani group was like a "storm in a tea cup" from a macroeconomic perspective.
Emphasising that India's public financial system is robust, Somanathan said, "There is absolutely no concern from the point of view of financial stability, either for depositors, for policyholders, or for anyone holding shares in these institutions.
The share of any one company is not such as to create any impact at the macro level, and so there is absolutely no concern from that point of view."
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, too, chipped in and told News 18 that the country's markets were "well regulated" and she did not expect the controversy around Adani's business empire to affect investor confidence.
"One instance, however much talked about globally, I would think is not going to be indicative of how well Indian financial markets have been governed," Sitharaman said.
Sitharaman added that public sector financial institutions had released detailed statements showing they had limited exposure to Adani Group and would not be significantly affected by the share crash.
"I think the investor confidence which existed before shall continue even now," she added.
For the record, the combined market cap of Adani Group's listed units has collapsed by more than $120 billion -- about half of the group's value -- since US short-seller Hindenburg Research released an explosive report last week.
