The Congress on Wednesday claimed that the Supreme Court-appointed expert committee lacks jurisdiction to probe all aspects of the Adani issue and would only be a “clean chit” panel for the government, asserting that only a JPC investigation could bring out the truth in the matter.
Addressing a press conference as the party’s total questions asked under its ‘Hum Adani Ke Hain Kaun’ initiative reached the 100-mark, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani issue is “non-negotiable”. The Congress has been persistent in its attack on the government weeks after Adani Group stocks took a beating on the bourses after US-based short seller Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share-price manipulation. Ramesh said the party has posed 99 questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since February 5 in connection with the Adani issue and concludes the series with a final question, asking whether he will act in the national interest using the vast army of investigative agencies. The Supreme Court-appointed expert committee appointed on March 2, unfortunately, lacks formal jurisdiction over these agencies, he claimed. “You have never hesitated to deploy them against the opposition, civil society and independent businesses. We now appeal to you, with some irony, to use them as they are intended, to investigate the most brazen case of corruption and cronyism the country has witnessed since 1947,” Ramesh alleged, attacking the prime minister. “While we pray that the Supreme Court’s Expert Committee produces a fair and thorough investigation of the ‘Adani Scam’, we note that it lacks jurisdiction over the investigative agencies mentioned above and that its scope does not include examining cronyism and your political interference in governance aimed at enriching your friends,” he said. The answer is clearly a JPC to examine all relevant aspects of this scam, as both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led governments have in the past agreed to investigate major cases of stock market manipulation, he asserted. Ramesh claimed that the committee formed by the Supreme Court is a panel centred around the Adani Group, headed by Gautam Adani, and the questions that the Congress has been asking are to the prime minister and the government. “Such questions will not be asked by the Supreme Court committee, they will not dare to consider these questions. They can be raised only through a JPC. The JPC will have a BJP person as the head as they have the majority but despite that, the Opposition will have a chance to raise their issues, answers will come from the government and all this will go on record,” he said.