After the opposition criticized the government over allegations made by U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research against SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Buch and her husband, BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar dismissed the report as a “conspiracy” aimed at destabilizing India’s financial system. He stated that the report lacked credibility and accused the Congress party of seeking foreign assistance to create chaos in the country by attacking the independent regulator, SEBI.
Chandrasekhar highlighted a pattern in Congress’s strategy over the past decade, alleging that the party has been using “politics of lies” and now collaborating with external forces to discredit India’s economy and financial institutions. He emphasized that the claims against SEBI were baseless and a deliberate attempt to undermine India’s financial stability.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “There seems to be a pattern where the Congress over the last ten years has adopted a strategy of politics of lies and is now seeking foreign help to destabilize our financial system and to create chaos in the country by attacking the independent regulator SEBI and by casting aspersions on the chairman of SEBI. This is a conspiracy and some forces are working together to destabilize India’s economy and discredit our regulator, stock markets and financial system. It is something that we should never allow as our country is on the path of expansion and growth. Using these innuendos and lies against an independent regulator is a crime. Nothing in the report is credible. This is a conspiracy and deliberate attack on India’s economy.”
The BJP leader also said that there is a certain plan behind such reports and said, “These are a set of innuendos and guesswork that are being tied together with a few grains of truth. There is a certain plan behind this. India’s financial system today is the strongest in the world. Even when banks and stock markets are crashing in the USA, Indian banks are strong. Indian financial sector has been rebuilt over the last ten years by PM Modi. Our economy is the fastest growing in the world.”
The BJP leader and Spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi intimated the Congress’s involvement behind the Hindenburg report and said such foreign reports come only when the Parliament session commences.
Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “For the past few years, whenever the Parliament session commences, a foreign report gets released. BBC documentary was released just before the Parliament session. The Hindenburg report came in January just before the Parliament session. Sometimes there is a report on religious freedom or sometimes there is a report on farmers from foreign countries or sometimes Greta Thunberg’s statement. All these sequences happen during the Parliament session. Today, when the opposition is carrying forward such reports, then it is suspected that the opposition has some connections with the abroad to create instability and anarchy during every Parliament session of India.”
Hitting out at the Congress for pleading with foreign entities to interfere in the internal matters of India, Trivedi said, “We are talking about this seriously because the recent elections in India were only elections when a foreigner, George Soros said I have invested 1 billion dollars just to dismiss the Modi government. If there is any incident, then there comes a report from abroad. I can’t understand why Rahul Gandhi criticises such things in foreign countries only. Congress and opposition leaders plead with foreign leaders to interfere in the internal matters of India. They want to create economic chaos in India through confusion, whether it is a public sector company or a private sector company.”
Adding further into it, Trivedi stated, “They are the same people who one year ago said that LIC, SBI, and HAL are over. But the fact is, in the last financial year LIC profited for Rs 17,000 crores while that of SBI is Rs 21,000 crores which is an all-time high. Now they are attacking SEBI.”
The BJP Spokesperson further alleged that it’s the Congress party that has always supported foreign entities whether it is Union Carbide, Bofors or Augusta Westland.
“What do they want to achieve through such allegations? Why does Congress always stand with foreign companies for the past 30-40 years? Why did it stand with Union Carbide? Why did they help Union Carbide’s Anderson to flee from India? I want to ask who was standing with companies like Bofors, Augusta Westland, BBC, and Hindenburg. Rahul Gandhi has worked with a British company, ” he said.
Questioning the opposition about their affection for foreign companies and reports, Trivedi asserted, “Today, I want to ask the opposition what affection they have for foreign entities and reports. I want to ask “Videsh ke sansthano se yeh konsa yaraana hai, ki Bharat ke har ek arthik sansthan ke Vishay ke upar aapka nishana hai?”
Meanwhile, hours, after the US-based short seller shot off fresh allegations against Adani Group, the spokesperson of the conglomerate, said, “The latest allegations by Hindenburg Research are malicious, mischievous, and manipulative selections of publicly available information to arrive at pre-determined conclusions for “personal profiteering with wanton disregard for facts and the law.”
Earlier in the day, shortly after US-based short seller Hindenburg Research on August 10 alleged that SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Buch and her husband had stakes in “both the obscure offshore entities used in the Adani money siphoning scandal,” the SEBI Chairperson and her husband issued a joint statement rejecting the allegations.
Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband accused Hindenburg Research, against whom SEBI has taken enforcement action, of character assassination.
In the joint statement released to the media, they said, “Our life and finances are an open book. All disclosures as required have already been furnished to SEBI over the years. We have no hesitation in disclosing any and all financial documents, including those that relate to the period when we were strictly private citizens, to any and every authority that may seek them. It is unfortunate that Hindenburg Research against whom SEBI has taken an Enforcement action and issued a show cause notice has chosen to attempt character assassination in response to the same.”
Earlier on Saturday, US short seller Hindenburg had alleged, “We had previously noted Adani’s total confidence in continuing to operate without the risk of serious regulatory intervention, suggesting that this may be explained through Adani’s relationship with SEBI Chairperson, Madhabi Buch.”
“What we hadn’t realized: the current SEBI Chairperson and her husband, Dhaval Buch, had hidden stakes in the exact same obscure offshore Bermuda and Mauritius funds, found in the same complex nested structure, used by Vinod Adani,” the report by the US hedge firm said.
Hindenburg Research said it has made the new allegations based on documents provided by a whistleblower and investigations carried out by other entities.
In January 2023, Hindenburg published a report accusing the Adani Group of financial irregularities, leading to a significant drop in the company’s stock price. The group at the time had rubbished these claims.
The Hindenburg report alleged stock manipulation and fraud by the conglomerate. The case is related to the allegations (part of a report by Hindenburg Research) that Adani had inflated its share prices. After these allegations were published, there was a sharp fall in the shares of various Adani group companies’ stocks.
In January 2024, the Supreme Court refused to transfer the probe into the allegations of stock price manipulation by the Adani group to an SIT and had directed market regulator SEBI to complete its probe into two pending cases within three months.
Earlier this year the SC also dismissed a plea seeking to review the verdict that had sought investigation by the market watchdog SEBI in the Adani-Hindenburg case.