'Not a personal matter': Rahul Gandhi slams PM Modi over Adani bribery case

Last year, US Department of Justice accused Adani of being involved in a plan to pay a bribe of over $ 250 million to secure the solar power contracts in the US, worth billions of dollars

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Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi once again attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the ongoing controversy surrounding billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani. Speaking at a youth event during the second day of his visit to his parliamentary constituency Rae Bareli, Gandhi referred to a recent press conference in the US where Modi, when asked about Adani by a US journalist, reportedly dismissed the question as a ‘personal matter’ that was not appropriate for discussions between two heads of state.  Gandhi on Friday said the issue was not a private concern but one of national significance.

 

During a joint press conference with the US President Donald Trump, a journalist asked PM Modi about his views on the Adani case, where the industrialist was charged with offering bribes to bag renewable energy projects in India. 

 

PM Modi avoided responding and said, “Firstly, India is a democratic country, and our culture and our thought philosophy are ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’. We consider the whole world as one family. I believe every Indian is mine. This is an individual issue and such issues are not discussed when two world leaders meet.” 

 

At Friday's event, Gandhi attacked the PM's response, saying “Narendra Modi ji, this is not a personal matter. It’s a matter of the country.”

 

“And what our PM says, it’s an individual matter and we don’t discuss it. Had he truly been India’s Prime Minister, he would have asked Trump about the matter and told him that he would get it enquired and if needed send him (to the US) for inquiry. But no, he said it’s a personal matter,” he said.

 

What is the case against Adani in the US?

 

Last year, under President Joe Biden, the US Department of Justice accused Gautam Adani, along with his nephew Sagar Adani and six others, of being involved in bribing Andhra Pradesh government officials with over $265 million to secure solar energy contracts for Adani Green Energy, the renewable energy arm of the Adani Group. The US Department of Justice alleged that the fact was hidden from US banks and investors from whom the Adani Group had raised funds for its solar energy projects. The Adani Group has refuted the allegations as ‘baseless’.