Beyond trade-offs and extortion, the scheme goes to the very heart of the Sangh Parivar’s long-term goal of an ideological dictatorship. The striking down of the electoral bonds scheme by the Supreme Court was no doubt a blow in favour of democracy and against this totalitarian march. It is this vision that the electoral bonds scheme served.
The campaign to protect India’s Hasdeo forests from coal mining received a boost on 13 February 2024 when prominent Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, met with leaders of the movement and pledged the support of his party. The indigenous tribal people of the biodiverse Hasdeo forests have been struggling gamely to protect their ancestral homeland from a string of coal projects being developed by the Adani Group. A change of state government in December had disastrous consequences, with dozens of campaigners detained by police while a swathe of forest was felled.
An AdaniWatch investigation finds that the 2014 election campaigning by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a private jet owned by the Adani Group was not disclosed as election expenditure, potentially violating the law of the land. If payments were made to the relevant Adani company for the lease of its aircraft by Modi for election campaigning, they were not reported by Modi or the BJP to the Election Commission.
A month after the release of the explosive Hindenburg report and the shock waves continue. The report has caused a firestorm in the Indian Parliament. The country’s Supreme Court has been deluged with cases arising from the Hindenburg allegations. Several major Adani projects have been cancelled or shelved as speculation mounts about the group’s financial health. Allegations swirl in the international press about the role of Vinod Adani, the older brother of Group founder, Gautam, in a network of Adani-invested entities registered in tax havens. Fears are now openly expressed in the world’s financial press that funds invested in ‘green’ Adani companies may have been used to back new coal projects.
Three months after the release of the explosive Hindenburg report on the Adani group, the issue continues to galvanise India’s political opposition. The recent session of Parliament was dominated by opposition calls for an investigation of the Hindenburg allegations by Parliament. Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party has effectively been elevated to the position of the leading Opposition politician following his repeated questioning of Prime Minister Modi about his close ties to the Adani Group. Gandhi’s disqualification from Parliament, a move apparently engineered by the ruling party, has accentuated his prominence.
Rout of Adani stocks continues. Over US $100 billion lost by Adani companies. Share offer cancelled a day after being ‘fully subscribed’. Indian Parliament suspended amid uproar. International bankers deprecate Adani stocks. Regulators finally pay heed to Hindenburg allegations.
The Adani Group is now the majority owner of the Indian television news network NDTV (New Delhi Television) after its co-founders, husband and wife Prannoy and Radhika Roy, sold most of their stake to the Group over the Christmas period. In a statement, the Roys said they have had discussions with Adani Group chairman, Gautam Adani, and that they are hopeful he will preserve NDTV’s values of Trust, Credibility and Independence.
An engineers’ union has alleged that an Adani-owned coal-power station is part of an unauthorised scheme to divert electricity that is contracted to supply the northern Indian state of Haryana to the western state of Gujarat – the home state of Adani chairman Gautam Adani and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to the union’s complaint to authorities, the diversion occurred in the peak of the summer months, while Haryana was facing a debilitating heat wave and rolling blackouts.
A prominent and popular news anchor has resigned from an Indian TV network that has effectively been taken over by Adani. The ‘hostile takeover’ ends the independence of NDTV India and is yet another blow dished out by the ruthless Adani Group to press freedom in India. The takeover has been lamented by figures from India’s opposition parties.
