Adani row: Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak in Lok Sabha on Rahul Gandhi’s slew of claims

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address the Lok Sabha on Wednesday and is likely to respond to a series of allegations leveled by Rahul Gandhi as the Congress leader launched a scathing attack on the government over the Adani-Hindenburg controversy and questioned the billionaire's meteoric rise. after the 2014 general election.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will respond to the debate on the motion of thanks on the President's address in the Lok Sabha today, the report said. Gandhi’s remarks created a massive uproar in the Parliament on Tuesday with BJP members strongly refuting the claims and daring him to authenticate the charges by producing evidence.

While sharing experiences from his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, Gandhi said wherever he went, he heard Adani’s name from the people and everyone questioned how Adani has excelled in every business and how he rose to the top after 2014. “From Tamil Nadu, Kerala to Himachal Pradesh we have been listening one name everywhere ‘Adani’. Across the entire country, it’s just ‘Adani’, ‘Adani’, ‘Adani’…people used to ask me that Adani enters any business and never fails,” Rahul Gandhi said.

“We heard Adani’s name in the entire country during Bharat Jodo Yatra, people asked me how he gets into any business and succeeds,” he said. Gandhi further claimed that Adani’s relationship with the Prime Minister began many years ago when Narendra Modi was Gujarat’s Chief Minister. “One man stood shoulder to shoulder with PM Modi, he was loyal to PM and helped Mr Modi to construct idea of a ‘resurgent Gujarat’. Real magic began when PM Modi reached Delhi in 2014,” he said. “There’s a rule who doesn’t have prior experience in airports can’t be involved in the development of airports. This rule was changed by the Government of India. The rule was changed and Adani was given six airports. After that India’s most profitable airport ‘Mumbai Airport’ was hijacked from GVK using agencies like CBI and ED and was given to Adani by the Government of India,” Gandhi added.

The BJP came down heavily on Rahul Gandhi over his remarks targeting the prime minister,  accusing the Congress leader making baseless, shameless and reckless allegations. Senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress itself was involved in “big scams” which “tarnished” the image of the country. “Rahul Gandhi made baseless, shameless and reckless allegations against PM Modi. The Congress and its leaders were involved in all those big scams which tarnished the image of India,” Prasad told reporters outside the Parliament.

Prasad also referred to the National Herald case and the AgustaWestland scam case to attack the Gandhi family. “It’s time to revive the memory of Rahul Gandhi on corruption.” He alleged that Rahul Gandhi, his mother Sonia Gandhi and her son-in-law Robert Vadra “are on bail.”