Billionaires get booed over farm laws
Protesters target duo who they think will benefit from new bills
Two of India’s richest men have landed in an unlikely controversy over farming laws, becoming targets of protesters who allege the tycoons have benefited from their close links to prime minister Narendra Modi.
For weeks, tens of thousands of farmers have camped outside the nation’s capital, demanding the withdrawal of recently passed legislation they say, without evidence, was designed to allow billionaires such as Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani to enter farming. The tycoons say they have no such interest. More than 1,500 phone towers of Ambani’s wireless carrier were vandalised last month and some farmers called for a boycott of their businesses.
Cozy nexus?
The fight between the government and the farmers has revived the debate on what Modi’s critics call cozy nexus between the magnates and the popular leader — accusations they all have denied. The protests, one of Modi’s toughest political challenges yet, follow an eventful 2020 when the combined fortunes of Ambani and Adani swelled by almost $41 billion, even as millions of Indians lost their jobs to the pandemic that pummeled the $2.9 trillion economy.
“Everyone loves to hate the rich in times of economic stress,” said Sanjiv Bhasin, a director at investment management firm IIFL Securities Ltd. in Mumbai. “People are venting out their anger at social disparity. It is indeed a new business risk to these large conglomerates. But all the noise will settle when the economy starts growing.”
Huge disparity
Highlighting the disparity, an Oxfam report in January 2020 said India’s richest 1 per cent hold over four times the wealth of 953 million people who make up the poorest 70 per cent of the country’s population. The wealth of the nation’s top nine billionaires is equivalent to the wealth of the bottom 50 per cent of the population, according to the non-profit body that works against inequality.
The new farm legislation will allow private companies to buy produce directly from farmers, moving from the decades-old system of state-run wholesale buyers and markets that guaranteed a minimum support price.
Responding to the accusations, Ambani’s $174 billion conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. issued a statement earlier this month saying it has never done any contract farming or acquired farm land for that purpose, and has no plans to do so. It also vowed to ensure its suppliers will pay government-mandated minimum prices to farmers. The Adani Group clarified in a statement last month that it does not buy food grains from farmers or influence prices.
Spokespersons for the Reliance and Adani groups did not respond to emails seeking comment on protesters’ allegations or on India’s wealth disparity. Representatives for the Modi administration and the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
Both Adani and Ambani hail from the western Indian state of Gujarat, just like Modi, who served as the state’s chief for over a decade. Both the tycoons have repeatedly aligned their business strategies to Modi’s nation-building initiatives.
About two decades ago, Adani cemented his ties to Modi by publicly backing him when a crisis threatened to end the rising politician’s career. Modi was under attack by rivals and businessmen who accused him of failing to prevent bloody sectarian riots in his home state in 2002. Adani created a rival regional industry lobby and helped kick off a biannual global investment summit in Gujarat in 2003 that boosted Modi’s pro-business credentials.