Adani and Modi | The Full Story of Fraud Allegations

Adani and Modi the Full Story of Fraud Allegations
Adani

It has been more than 1 month since the Hindenburg Report was published. Even now, new allegations are being levied against the Adani Group one after the other. A few days ago, Wikipedia accused the Adani Group Of manipulating the Wikipedia pages By using fake accounts and undeclared paid editors. Before this, it was discussed in Parliament as well When Congress leader Rahul Gandhi And TMC leader Mahua Moitra Questioned Prime Minister Modi About his alleged relationship with Adani. A photo was presented at the Parliament Of Prime Minister Modi with Adani, Which caused a lot of uproars And later, Rahul Gandhi’s remarks were removed from Parliament records.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi And TMC leader Mahua Moitra

What were the accusations?

How true are they? Come, let’s try to figure it out.

“Mr. Adani and Mr. Modi, are in it together.” “The person whose planes PM Modi uses to travel, The person whose fundings run BJP.” “A slew of deals across sectors from defense to airports to power, almost always went to the Adani.
group.” “All of the funds are going to one person.”

“What is his relationship with India’s Prime Minister?”

It’s important to mention one thing. This isn’t the first time that a corporate group is facing severe allegations. Before this, we witnessed the Harshad Mehta Scam, Satyam Scam, Sahara Scam. Allegations on Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi. Putting aside corporate groups and individuals, such accusations have been levied on the previous governments too. The Congress government had to face the Borors Scam, Augusta Westland Scam, 2G Spectrum Scam, Commonwealth Scam. But what’s happening now, has. perhaps never happened in the history of the nation. This is the first time, that in an alleged scam, public money was lost, but a faction of the people has come forward Not to demand an investigation but rather to defend the company and government. A trend is created on Twitter #IStandWithAdani. These people

who’re supporting Adani, had they been Adani’s employees or investors, it would have been understandable to a large extent. But a significant of them are neither employees nor stockholders of Adani, even so, they are at the front line to defend Adani. Can you imagine someone running a trend of #IStandWithVijayMallya for Vijay Malia's case? Imagine someone defending the Commonwealth Games Saying that there should be investigation into it. There should be no questions as no wrong was done.

This is why, friends, I believe that the biggest scam here Is being done with the people’s minds. Basic logic, common sense, and the basic understanding of democracy Has been trampled over. They say that Adani shouldn’t be questioned Because Adani is an Indian businessman. That Adani group provides so many jobs. That

they have contributed to the development of India. Does this make any sense? For some basic understanding, let’s try to understand The contribution of the Adani Group. Let’s look at the jobs. Adani was the richest person in India once. Asia’s richest person, In fact, the second richest person in the world. Then his net worth was ₹12.44 TRILLION!
After the Hindenburg report, The net worth has significantly decreased,

According to Bloomberg, his Net Worth is said to be ₹4.3 Trillion. Such a wealthy man. With so many companies under his control. So, his companies must be employing millions of people, right? You might think that. But according to Adani’s official website, The Adani Group employs about 23,000 people. Only 23,000 jobs. But you might feel that it isn't a fair comparison and that we should compare it to other private companies only, so let's do that. The number 1 private company that to provide the greatest number of jobs in India are the Tata Group of companies. More than 900,000 jobs.

Then comes Infosys, with more than 300,000 jobs. Reliance Industries provides 236,000 jobs. Wipro provides 231,000.
jobs. Adani's companies do not appear even in the List of Top 25. Take the government company Coal India, that has 272,445 employees. Indian Railways, 1.25 million employees. A company like Amul provides livelihood to ₹3.6 million.
farmers. Overall, Indian Agriculture employs more than 150 million people. When you look at the numbers, Adani Group doesn’t make a significant contribution to providing jobs in India. Second, even if not in
terms of jobs, they would have made a large contribution to the taxes, since they have such a large Net Worth. Take a look at this list compiled by Business Today of India’s Top 10 taxpaying companies. At the top is Reliance followed by SBI, TCS, HDFC, Vedanta, JSW Steel, Indian Oil Corporation, Tata Steel, ICICI, LIC. We don’t spot Adani on it.Several people pointed this out, Companies of India’s richest person Aren’t among the Top 10 taxpayer companies.

How could this be? An explanation for this can be That tax is levied on profit. Not on Net Worth. So let’s take a look at the profits. According to MoneyControl.com Profit of Adani Enterprises for 12 months as on March 2022, Was ₹11.13 Billion. Don’t you think this is suspicious? The amount of tax paid by the other companies Is more than the
profit made by Adani.

If the business isn’t very profitable, Why do they have such high valuations?

Did these companies make any ground-breaking innovations? Or did they create any heavily used technology? Similar to companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Tesla. That doesn’t seem like the case. So why? Perhaps the answer is hidden in the accusations. Come, let’s look at the new allegations one by one. Especially the allegations from
the Indian Parliament.

The first allegation is of a Land Scam. This was when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Back then, various industrial groups needed land in Gujarat for their projects So they bought land there. K Raheja Corp bought land at ₹470/m². Maruti Suzuki got land at ₹670/m². Ford India, Tata Motors, and TCS paid ₹1,100/m². Torrent Power had to pay ₹6,000/m².

But when Adani purchased land to build a port, They were given the land at a mere ₹32/m². This was the maximum. In places, the price was as low as ₹1/m². I’m not making this up. This is the headline of the Business Standard article from 26th April 2014, So there’s an accusation of a land scam. After this, in April 2015, CAG presented its report to the Gujarat Assembly.

They claimed that the Gujarat government did not classify forest land correctly. Due to this, the “Goutam Adani promoted Mundra Port” benefitted by ₹586.4 million. This happened in 2008-09.

After this, in 2022, the Public Accounts Committee reiterated the same thing. Hey, said that the land was supposed to be classified as Eco Class-2, But it was classified as Eco Class-4, Which led to the government. losing ₹586.7 million. The government losing money means. The loss of public funds. The second accusation is the misutilization of forest land.

Narendra Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister in 2014, And look at this report in The Times of India from 24th October 2014. Centre clears370-acre forest land for Adani’s coal-based thermal power plant. This was in Maharashtra. After this, in 2018, 142 acres of land was further sanctioned. This time by both the Central and State government.

Both were headed by BJP at the time. The forest department responded by saying that the forest land demanded by them was the barest minimum and that giving this land would eventually lead to an increase in employment. You’ll ask about the particulars of employment. They claimed that 100 local residents will get jobs, And indirectly, 250 residents.350 jobs in total.

In March 2018, Adani Group received 'in-principle' approval for using about 1,550 hectares of forest land. For the Mundra Special Economic Zone. Regarding this, the Forest Advisory Committee said that most of
the forest land would be used for non-forestry purposes. The third accusation is of the Airport Scam. In November 2018,

The Cabinet approved the privatization of 6 airports. Here, the privatization of airports is a big deal on its own. Questions need to be asked the profitable airports that were making money for the government Why were they
privatised?

As long as a profitable organization is under the government's control, its profit goes to the government. That can be later used for public welfare. But if it is privatized, its profits would go to the corporate company. Only that company would benefit. Earlier the excuse was that the loss-making public companies are being privatized.

Well, it's understandable if it is loss-making. But take the example of ONGC, In Financial Year 2021-22 It recorded a Net Profit of ₹400 billion. It became India's second-most profitable company after Reliance Industries. Even so, the government directed ONGC to privatize oil and gas fields. Anyway, this is a major issue on its own right. For now, let's stick to the privatization of the airports, in November 2018, a committee was formed. Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee.

This committee was tasked with deciding the criteria to whom the airports should be given after the privatization. This committee made 2 decisions. First, any company purchasing these airports Need not have any previous experience in this field. And second, there is no restriction on the number of airports, one company could bid for. After this, all
6 airports, went to Adani.

Adani companies had no previous experience managing an airport. Friends, it is now reported that when this happened, The Finance Ministry and NITI Aayog had raised concerns against this. They said that this would be a big financial risk. To handover the airports to a bidder With no previous experience in handling airports, could
cause performance issues. The quality of services could be compromised.

But these objections were overruled. And Adani got 6 airports. In the same category as this alleged Airport Scam is another alleged scam. The hijacking of the Mumbai Airport. I am not making up these allegations. These allegations were raised by opposition leaders in Parliament. The only reason you don't know about these in detail is because the media doesn't discuss these. Mumbai airport was under the control of GVK Group. On 28th July 2020, The Enforcement Directorate raided the Mumbai and Hyderabad offices of the GVK Group.

Additionally, the office of Mumbai International Airport Limited was raided. It was a joint venture managing the airport.
About 1 month after this raid, On 1st September 2020, Adani Group acquired a 74% stake of Mumbai International Airport. Of this 74% stake, 50.5% stake was previously held by the GVK Group that is completely held by Adani now. The
question arose if this was a coincidence or collusion. "GVK was pressured by the Indian Government, to hand over the airport to Mr. Adani."

In December 2021, Minister of State for Civil Aviation General V. K. Singh Told the Rajya Sabha that of the total 8 airports under public-private partnership, 7 airports are run by Adani Enterprises.

In March 2022, SBI underwrites the debt owed by Adani's Navi Mumbai airport. The debt of ₹127.70 billion. You would ask about the meaning of underwriting. So come look at the dictionary definition of it. It means that the banks provide financial support. and take responsibility of bearing the cost if the company fails. This could be considered a Golden Offer. The 4th allegation here was the alleged Coal Scam. Opposition leaders have alleged that when Prime Minister
Modi goes on a tour of foreign countries, he doesn't work for India's benefit.

He works for Adani's benefit. "He travels with you on your delegations. He meets heads of states on visits to India. He portrays that India is the Prime Minister, And the Prime Minister is him.

He makes it appear to the world that he is the remote control behind the Prime Minister. And by obliging him, we'll be obliging the Prime Minister."

Interestingly, such allegations aren't raised by opposition leaders only. Instead, some BJP leaders are doing the same. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy shared a chronology. Our research team verified whether these news articles were correct. They're correct. Listen to the chronology.

December 2021,Adani Group started exporting coals from its Australian coal mines. Climate activists had protested against this coal mines previously.

May 2022, the Indian government slashes the import duty on coal. From 2.5% to 0%. June 2022, the Modi government directed Coal India, to be prepared for importing 12 million tonnes of coal. June 2022, NTPC awards coal import
tenders of ₹83 billion

to Adani Enterprises. Coincidence? or Collusion? Subramanian Swamy missed 2 imported reports.

May 2022, in India power plants, were allowed the use of blended coal that contains 30% of imported coal, until March of next year, without the consent of the buyer states. On 26th May, an emergency coal blending order was passed regarding this, under Section 11 of the Electricity Act. In July, Congress leader Gaurav Vallabh, raised concern about this. Claiming that the government is working for the benefit of its friends.

August 2022, this order was retracted. But in January 2023, the central government directed the power generation companies to use the blend of imported coal, up to 6% of their requirement till September.

In this story, I missed out on a major point. Government officials had told the Indian Express, that the domestic coal procured from India, costs around ₹1,700-₹2,000 per tonne. But the coal imported by Adani, costs around ₹17,000 to ₹20,000 per tonne. Goes to show that when public-sector companies are being directed to use imported coal, they have to pay ten times the costs. If you want to know about previously alleged scams in detail, such as the alleged 2G spectrum scam,

Let's look at another chronology, related to Sri Lanka. May 2019, the governments of India, Japan, and Sri Lanka, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation, for the development of the East Container Terminal. At the Columbo Port. Quite commendable.

February 2021, Sri Lanka cancels this ECT agreement from 2019. India and Japan weren't happy with this. The next month, March 2021, Sri Lanka changed the terminal. Instead of the East Container Terminal, the West Container Terminal. But then it says that it will be a joint public-private partnership project. Between the Sri Lanka Ports Authority

and Adani Ports and SEZ.In a press release, the Sri Lankan government stated that Their cabinet-appointed negotiation committee had requested the Indian High Commission and the Japanese Embassy to nominate investors. Japan did not nominate any investor While the Indian high commission gave approval to Adani ports and SEZ.

This isn’t the only foreign project which went to Adani. There are numerous such contracts, related to ports, defense, electricity, in countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Israel, that were awarded to Adani. TMC leader Mahua Moitra claims, That Adani travels with Prime Minister Modi on his foreign tours, meets other heads of states, and has created an impression that he is the remote-control managing PM Modi.

The next major accusation is of Tax Evasion. Look at this notice, issued by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, dated 15th May 2014, several such Show Cause Notices were issued to the Adani Group Alleging that the Group evades paying taxes. They have not paid taxes properly To the total amount of ₹10 billion, approximately. There were allegations of using a shell company and hundreds of millions of dollars were transferred among companies and sent to tax havens So that taxes could be avoided. But in August 2017, the adjudicating authority of DRI, KVS Singh Dropped all charges raised by this agency. The ones levied against Adani Power Maharashtra Limited And Adani Power Rajasthan Limited.

The allegations were that the goods imported by them, Were shown at an inflated value. They were talking about approx. ₹39 billion. In February 2018, the Customs department claimed That those orders were wrong, illegal, and improper. In 2017, the documents that were leaked to EPW indicate that Adani Power did not pay the duty on Raw Materials and Consumables Which amounted to approximately ₹10 billion. After this, the next allegation is loan-related.

In September 2022, when Adani’s wealth was at an all-time high, The loans owed by Adani Group touched all-time highs too.₹2.2 TRILLION! On 30th January, in an interview by Adani Group’s CFO, To CNBC TV18, He stated that the total debt of the Adani Group is at $30 billion. Now, $1 is around ₹82. So $1 billion is about ₹82 billion. So approximately, this is around ₹2.48 trillion.

Of this, around ₹740 billion approximately is owed to Indian Banks. From the disclosures made by banks, we see that Adani Group owes ₹400 billion to SBI, ₹70 billion to PNB, Bank of Baroda declined to openly disclose the amount owed, But according to LiveMint’s report, It is calculated to be around ₹53.8 billion. These are national, public-sector banks, And one company owes around ₹523.8 billion to these banks. Another allegation related to the loans is of loan write-off. The Indian Express filed an RTI in which they were told by RBI that In the last 5 years, the banks have written off about ₹10 trillion worth of loans.

Write-offs do not mean that the banks will stop trying to recover this money, But the banks have recovered only about ₹1.32 trillion of this money till now. That amounts to about only 13% of the write-offs. In 2018 and 2021, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy accused the Adani Group Of being an NPA trapeze artist. NPA refers to Bad Loans. Adani countered these allegations by claiming that The Adani Group does not have any NPAs. The next accusation was regarding Shell Companies. Mahua Maitra talked about Mauritius-based shell companies.

“His group companies have amassed nearly ₹42,000 crores [₹420 billion] in Foreign Portfolio Investments From 6 Mauritius-based funds. These funds have commonalities, Like common address, common company secretary, and common directors.” She asked why this wasn’t invested back in 2019 When she raised the issue in Parliament. “There’s an urgent need to investigate these funds. I brought this up in this house in 2019.” She mentioned another 40 shell companies That invested in the Adani Group. She said that the funds were managed by Adani’s brother And a Chinese individual Chang Chung-Ling, DRI records reveal that

Chang Chung-Ling and Vinod Adani, Share the same residential address. Adani Group hasn’t commented on this allegation. The list of accusations is very long, friends. The allegations which I listed out now, Are far from over. If I start listing every allegation, this will stretch into a 2-hour long video. For now, let’s see what happened next. Opposition talked about this in Parliament.

They demanded a JPC. To create a Join Parliamentary Committee to conduct an investigation into the allegations. How did BJP respond to this? BJP asked for proof. Proof for the allegations. I don’t understand, what proof do they need further?

These news articles on these allegations Are publicly available. Was land not given to Adani at dirt-cheap rates? If this was indeed wrong, why doesn’t BJP reveal the rates at which the land was given to Adani? And if there was no land allocation, Then BJP can say that no land was sold. Were rules changed for these 6 airports? Was an order not passed to force power generators to fulfil 10% of their need by imported coal?

Did they not purchase imported coal at 10 times the price of domestic coal? If not, then they can tell us the price it was procured at. What did Prime Minister Modi have to say in response to these allegations? He asked why Rahul Gandhi doesn’t use Nehru’s surname. I’m not kidding.

This was the actual response of Prime Minister Modi in Parliament. “I still do not understand why people from his lineage Are afraid of using Nehru as their surname.” The reason is that Rahul Gandhi’s surname Is that of his grandfather. His grandfather, Feroze Jahangir Gandhy. A freedom fighter. His surname was spelled Gandhy.

During the freedom movement He was very inspired by Mahatma Gandhi.Even before getting married to Indira Nehru, He had changed his surname to Gandhi.Replaced Y with an I. This is why Jawaharlal Nehru’s daughter’s name Changed from Indira Nehru to Indira Gandhi,

And her sons, grandsons, granddaughters, Use the same surname. But I believe, if it is becoming such an important issue That it hinders investigation into alleged scams,

I will request Rahul Gandhi To please change his surname. To change his name to Rahul Nehru, So that there can be smooth investigations. What do you think friends? Major allegations. Severe allegations. With documents to verify these allegations, but on the other hand, there is no response. Let alone starting an investigation, there is no demand for an investigation. Media maintains its silence and when someone tries to speak up on social media, They either run Adani’s biography.

Or the trend #IStandWithAdani. Can you imagine this even happening before in India’s history?

Thank you very much!