Congress figurehead, Rahul Gandhi, has said tribal protests against Adani’s coal mines in the Hasdeo forests are ‘justified’. Results of his work behind the scenes on the ‘problem’ should be ‘visible in a couple of weeks.’
A firm owned by a long-time friend of Gautam Adani is running lucrative covid tests at Adani-run airports in India. The firm appears to have charged rates that are substantially higher than those charged by laboratories at other airports. The company, North Star Diagnostics Private Limited, is owned by Adani’s long-time buddy Dr Malay Ramesh Mahadevia and his immediate family members, including his wife Sonali Mahadevia and his two daughters Tulsi and Bansari.
Since March 16, the displaced persons, led by Oram, were sitting on an indefinite dharna protesting further displacement and demanding the implementation of recommendations made by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.
In a controversial decision that will benefit the Adani Group to the detriment of tribal forest-dwellers, leaders of the Indian states of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have sanctioned clearance of forests to expand an Adani coal mine. In an unpleasant twist, while Gautam Adani is perceived to be close to PM Narendra Modi of the BJP, this decision was made by leaders of the Indian National Congress, which opposes Modi’s party.
As political developments over the past year seem to have weakened the hold on power of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Adani Group has been reaching out to leaders of political parties opposed to Modi’s ruling BJP party. Is Group head Gautam Adani of the view that his proximity to Modi may work against his business interests in the future?
This is an eye-witness account of the weekend’s protest by hundreds of Indian tribal people (Adivasi) against coal projects in the Hasdeo forests. They gathered in one of the threatened villages to call on the Adani Group and governments to end the takeover of ancestral lands for coal mining. It was the first step along a 300-km path to the state capital that started on Monday, facing down attempts by supporters of Adani’s coal-mining agenda to disrupt the peaceful protest.
An Indian government authority that investigates violations of customs law has alleged that three Adani Group companies have used intermediaries to artificially inflate the prices of imported coal-power goods. This practice, known as over-invoicing, enables companies to enrich a related third party and even to launder money, while passing on costs to consumers. The allegations against the Adani Group companies have bounced around inside the legal system for years, with little progress.
India’s opposition Congress party has alleged that India’s Modi government has taken steps to ease the process of privatizing the Container Corporation of India (CCI) in order to expedite a takeover by the Adani Group. The Opposition has warned of a potential Adani monopoly over India’s import-export transport infrastructure.
A recent protest against alleged encroachment on pasture by an Adani solar-power project in the western Indian state of Rajasthan was the latest in a series of conflicts spurred by an aggressive plan for huge arrays of solar panels in this arid zone. The sprawling industrial installations threaten ancestral grazing lands, oases and some of the last habitat of the Great Indian Bustard. Such conflicts could be avoided with proper regulation and community consultation.
