After appearing on social media feeds and screens walking across the country, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi stirred up a storm in parliament with a picture of PM Narendra Modi with Gautam Adani. He accused the BJP government of handing over control of airports to the Adani Group and pressurising Sri Lanka to award wind power projects to the firm. As BJP and Congress trade allegations, a letter has emerged showing how the Punjab government was instructed to procure coal via Adani's port in Mundra.
The letter dated November 2022 was tweeted by Congress MP Manish Tewari, and gave directions for transportation of coal from eastern India to Punjab. It instructed the government to first take coal to Pradip Port in Odisha, and from there to Mundra Port in Gujarat via sea, after crossing Sri Lanka. From there the coal was to be transported via train to Punjab, instead of carrying through the rail route from eastern India.
The Mundra Port has been controlled by Adani Ports, while the company was disqualified from the bidding for the dry bulk terminal tender at Pradip Port last year. Mundra has also been in the eye of a storm after multiple drug hauls, resulting in the seizure of heroin worth more than Rs 21,000 crore from the port. In another raid, heroin worth Rs 375 crore seized at Mundra Port, was to be transported to Punjab.
The letter allegedly sent by the Ministry of Power, comes at a time when Adani has been shaken up by allegations of corporate fraud by Hindenburg Research's report, and the opposition is targeting the BJP government over links with him.
