It has been a few days since the US Department of Justice made public the indictment of Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and six others in the Securities and Exchanges Commission led inquiry into the case of bribing of Indians.
The case, being investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is essentially of Adani Green raising money in the US, partnering with a firm Azure Power, setting up Solar Energy infrastructure in India and trying to sell power to state level distribution companies.
The indictment states that Gautam Adani personally, along with Sagar Adani and others raised money from the US Markets and Investors and then used that money to bribe politicians and officials in India.
The amount involved is 250 Million US Dollars.
As per the indictment, major portion of this money, around 175 Million USD, was paid to the CM of Andhra Pradesh, Jagan Mohan Reddy. That translates to around 1,470 Crores.
As per information gathered by FBI, Sagar Adani created presentation with photographs of officials with the amounts paid to each and this was shared with various people within the organization.
The BJP held a press conference addressed by their National Spokesperson, Sambit Patra, and he highlighted that only non-BJP ruled states were named in the US DoJ indictment.
The states named were Andhra Pradesh (Jagan Mohan Reddy of YSR Congress), Tamil Nadu (where DMK is in power), Odisha (where BJD was in power), Chattisgarh (where Bhupesh Bhagel of Congress was in power) and J&K (where a BJP appointed Lt-Governor was controlling the state).
Sambit Patra was quick to point out that these are allegations in the US indictment and not proven charges. He failed to mention whether his highlighting the non-BJP states was an indication that only those states were corrupt.
So, we have a peculiar situation on hand. Arrest warrants have been issued against Adani in the US and there are allegations of bribery with proof. Adani and the seven others face up to 20 years in jail if the charges are proven, but Adani faces no action in India and in fact BJP is defending Adani even in the face of evidence already disclosed.
The other problem is that Narendra Modi, who has time and again said that he has zero tolerance to corruption, is unable to act against the likes of Jagan Mohan Reddy and others because taking action against them will prove that bribes were indeed paid. This is a Catch-22 situation for BJP, damned if it does, damned if it does not. The party’s reputation lies in tatters. The reputation of Narendra Modi stands damaged as an anti-corruption crusader. This, along with various other accusations, exposes Modi as just another gas bag who talks big but does not walk the talk, when it comes to corruption.
The formation of government in Maharashtra along with Ajit Pawar, taking in Narayan Rane and people like Ashok Chavan, all tell a story of Modi’s double speak on corruption.
The party that came to power on anti-corruption plank has lost its way in the wilderness.
Another question which should engage the mind of every Indian is that, if 1470 Crores was paid to Jagan Mohan Reddy (and the balance paid to others), how was this paid, where was this paid, was it paid in Indian rupees or paid into foreign bank accounts?
Also, if Andhra Pradesh purchased expensive power from Adani, who are the other CM’s across India who too signed power purchase agreements with Adani in the same period of 2020-2022? How were they paid? If the power purchase agreements were signed by BJP ruled states, how much money was paid to BJP and who all in BJP received that money.
What also needs to be investigated is how much did the price of power go up for common people during the same period based on the increase in input cost and how much money was collected from them since then?
These are the questions that should engage the common man because after all is said and done, the final bill is paid by consumers and 82% of them are Hindu!
