From inflated stocks to lack of transparency in family businesses and how one conglomerate's fortunes can affect India's stock market, different layers are emerging in the Adani vs Hindenburg saga. A day after the opposition held protests demanding a probe into LIC and SBI's exposure to Adani, Rahul Gandhi brandished an image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Gautam Adani, to hint at a connection. Following this, images of Adani with Rahul Gandhi brother-in-law and businessman Robert Vadra have emerged.
India's history of stock market fraud
This salvo of visuals being tossed around with accusations behind them, raises serious questions about the extent of the Adani Group's access to the corridors of power. It also brings back memories of past scams pulled off by corporates thanks to their political connections, including India's first financial scam involving Haridas Mundhra and India's then finance minister TT Krishnamachari. Back then Rahul Gandhi's grandfather Feroze Gandhi had accused Nehru's minister of forcing LIC to by stakes in six troubled firms owned by Mundhra.
Today Adani has his finger in every pie, be it airports, power generation, ports, highways, FMCG, defence and renewables, among others. But its not just the BJP, Congress CMs, and leaders of other parties have also savoured investments from the conglomerate.
Changing equations in Kerala
One of them is CPI(M)'s Pinarayi Vijayan, whose government in Kerala approached the Supreme Court against Adani's takeover of Thrivananthapuram. But Vijayan as CM can also be seen with Karan Adani, while his party joined hands with BJP to support Adani's port in Vizhinjam.
The duality of Congress?
Another case is that of Congress CM Ashok Gehlot, who had Gautam Adani's ear during an investment summit in Rajasthan, and welcomed a Rs 65,000 crore investment from his firm to upgrade Jaipur airport and set up solar power capacity. This ironically happened at a time when Rahul Gandhi was attacking the central government over connections with Adani.
Reason behind Mamata's silence?
West Bengal CM and fierce Modi critic Mamata Banerjee, known for her cordial relations with other corporates, has also been seen with Adani, who invested Rs 10,000 crore in West Bengal. The conglomerate also secured a $3 billion port project in the state last year.
Blast from the past
Another aggressive non-BJP CM KCR of Telangana had hosted Adani back in 2014, before his meteoric rise. NCP's Sharad Pawar had also created a buzz when he was photographed with Adani in Mount Abu in 2014.
Among others Adani has also been seen with Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who he thanked for guidance on the Vizhinjam Port, and former aviation minister Praful Patel.
How much of corporate involvement is too much?
These dealings across political parties and ideological spectrum points out two realities of the India growth story. Every government, in states or in the centre, need to work with corporates to ensure efficient implementation of power, infrastructure and other crucial projects. For instance, NYU Professor Aswath Damodaran has also called Adani a competent player in an Indian market full of frauds and incompetent players.
But it also raises questions about where to draw the line, and to what extent can state-backed firms be exposed to private firms. Public private partnerships are meant to be a vehicle for increasing efficiency of the public service infrastructure, but can they be used to favour corporations?
