Sharad Pawar supports Adani Group, dismisses need for JPC probe; Congress reacts

New Delhi: Sharad Pawar, the chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the country's seniormost opposition leader has come out strongly in support of the Adani Group, saying that there is “no need” for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the issue and claimed that the group was being ‘targeted’ in Hindenburg Research report alongside criticising the ongoing campaign against the conglomerate that led to complete washout of the parliament session.

Pawar criticised the narrative around the US short-seller Hindenburg's report on the Adani Group. In an interview with NDTV, he questioned the credibility and motives of Hindenburg whose claims about the Adani Group’s stocks had led to a crash in their share prices.

Pawar also questioned the logic behind the demand of a JPC probe by the Congress that has been stalling all business in the country's most important legislative body.

"Such statements were given by other individuals too earlier and there was a ruckus in parliament for a few days but this time proportion of importance was given to the issue. The issues that were kept, who kept them, we had never heard of these people who gave the statement, what is the background. When they raise issues that cause a ruckus across the country, the cost is borne by the country's economy, we cannot disregard these things. It seems this was targeted," he told NDTV in an exclusive interview.

"An individual industrial group of the country was targeted, that is what it seems. If they have done anything wrong, there should be an inquiry."

The Congress is among a large group of opposition parties that has been seeking a JPC probe into the Adani-Hindenburg row.

Pawar said that when the demand was raised, the Supreme Court set up a probe and appointed a committee with a retired Supreme Court judge, an expert, an administrator, and an economist. They were given guidelines and a timeframe and told to conduct an inquiry.

He questioned the rationale behind the demands for the JPC probe especially when the BJP has been extending support to the Adani group.

"On the other hand, the opposition wanted a parliamentary committee to be appointed. If a parliamentary committee is appointed, then monitoring is with the ruling party. The demand was against the ruling party, and if the committee appointed for an inquiry has a ruling party majority, then how will the truth comes out is a valid concern. If the Supreme Court, who no one can influence, if they were to conduct the inquiry, then there was a better chance of the truth coming to light. So, after the Supreme Court announced an inquiry, there was no significance of a JPC Probe. It was not needed”, Pawar said.

"I cannot say what the intent was but I know that a committee appointed by judges of the Supreme Court was very important, this is what I know. Maybe the reasoning could have been that once a JPC starts, its proceedings are reported in the media on a daily basis. Perhaps someone would have wanted the issue to fester for two to four months, but the truth would never have come out", the NCP leader said when asked about the intentions of the Congress behind pushing for a JPC probe.

Pawar said that he disagreed with Rahul Gandhi's "Adani-Ambani" style of targeting big business houses. It was ‘meaningless’, he said referring to the "Tata-Birla" narrative of the past.

"This has been happening in this country for many years. I remember many years ago that when we came into politics if we had to speak against the government, we used to speak against Tata-Birla. Who was the target? Tata-Birla. When we understood the contribution of Tata, we used to wonder why we kept on saying Tata Birla. But one had to target someone so we used to target Tata-Birla. Today the name of Tata-Birla is not at the forefront, different Tata-Birla has come before the government. So these days if you have to attack the government, the name of Ambani and Adani is taken. The question is, that the people you are targeting, if have done something wrong, or misused their powers, then in a democracy you have a right to speak against them 100 per cent, but to attack without anything meaningful, this I cannot understand."

"Today, Ambani has contributed to the petrochemical sector, does the country not need it? In the field of electricity, Adani has contributed. Does the country not need electricity? These are people who take up such responsibility and work for the name of the country. If they have done wrong, you attack, but they have created this infrastructure, to criticise them does not feel right to me", he continued.

"There can be different viewpoints, and criticism, one has the right to speak strongly about the policies of the government, but a discussion should take place. A discussion and dialogue are very important in any democracy, if you ignore discussion and dialogue the system will fall into danger, it will just perish", Pawar remarked referring to the unrelenting campaign by the Congress.

“To ignore the issues of the common people regularly is not right”, Pawar said. "When this happens, we are following the wrong path. This is what we need to understand."

“It is everyone's responsibility that there is conflict in parliament... and ok, the session will not run that day, but to get the house to run the next day, whether you sit in the evening or the next day, there must be an effort to find a solution. This process of dialogue is absent these days", added the veteran politician.

The second half of the budget session saw continuous disruptions over JPC demand for a probe into the Hindenburg-Adani row.

Congress distanced itself from the NCP leader’s remarks asserting that the Adani Group issue allegedly "linked" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "real and very serious".

"The NCP may have its view but 19 like-minded parties are convinced that the PM-linked Adani Group issue is real and very serious," Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said in a statement after Pawar's interview with NDTV.

"But all 20 like-minded opposition parties, including the NCP, are united and will be together in saving the Constitution and our democracy from the BJP's assaults and in defeating the BJP's divisive and destructive political, social and economic agenda," he added.

While the Congress spokesperson excluded Pawar's party from the list of "19 like-minded parties" that demanded a JPC probe into the Adani-Hindenburg row, he included the NCP in the list of "20 like-minded parties" that would continue to fight the BJP in the national level.

The Supreme Court had last month set up a six-member expert committee “to investigate if there was a regulatory failure in dealing with the alleged contravention of laws pertaining to the securities market in relation to the Adani Group or other companies”. The committee was asked to give the report in two months.