Adani mess: BRS MPs move adjournment motions in Parliament for JPC probe

NEW DELHI: MPs of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Thursday moved adjournment motions in Parliament demanding an investigation either by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) or the Chief Justice of India over the alleged questionable business practices of the Adani Group. They also insisted on a discussion on the stock market bloodbath in the wake of the damning report by short-seller Hindenburg Research against the corporate giant.

Disclosing this to the media at Parliament, the BRS MPs said that adjournment motions to this effect had been moved in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. BRS Parliamentary Party leader K Keshava Rao said that, since it was a fiscal matter, the BRS had moved the adjournment motions besides demanding a discussion on it.

Stating that the shares of the Adani Group witnessed a mind-boggling 27 percent fall after the publication of the damning report by the US-based short seller, Keshava Rao felt that the unprecedented meltdown of shares should be thoroughly investigated either by a JPC or the Supreme Court. He alleged that corporate tycoons had become the friends of the Union Government and that explained the Centre’s stoic silence on the issue up until now.

Referring to the adjournment of both the Houses of Parliament on this issue until 2 pm on Thursday, the senior Rajya Sabha Member said that it was not right to adjourn under the pretext that the Houses were not in order.

Earlier in the day, the BRS MPs stormed the podiums in both the Houses, raising slogans for a discussion on the report of short-seller Hindenburg Research on the Adani Group’s alleged stock market manipulations. The Parliamentarians also staged a protest in the well of the two Houses denouncing the injustice meted out to Telangana in Wednesday’s Budgetary allocations for 2023-24.

BRS Leader in Lok Sabha Nama Nageswara Rao also informed the media about the notice given to Speaker Shri Om Birla on the issue. He said that the Speaker was urged to take up a discussion immediately in view of the magnitude of the issue and its ramifications on the fiscal front.

Another BRS MP Kotha Prabhakar Reddy expressed his anger over the way the NDA Government was brushing aside the requests by various political parties for an adjournment motion on the Adani controversy. He took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that the latter earlier went out of his way to benefit businessmen with Gujarat roots and now remaining reticent in Parliament to protect them.

He vowed to carry out a concerted campaign involving all political parties and stage a country-wide protest against the Adani Group misdeeds and the Centre’s questionable approach in a manner to protect the corporate behemoth.