Pawar breaks ranks with Congress over JPC in Adani case

Claims that the truth would not have come out through a JPC probe.

In a major setback to the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi, one of the key members of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) broke ranks and opposed the formation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (Jpc)-led probe into the charges of alleged financial impropriety that has been levelled against the Adani Group.

Party president Sharad Pawar, while speaking to a news channel owned by the Adani Group, stated that he did not support the demand for JPC, saying the Supreme Court has appointed a committee to probe the issue with a Supreme Court judge, an expert, an administrator, and an economist.

“On the other hand, the Opposition wanted a parliamentary committee to be appointed. If a parliamentary committee is appointed, then monitoring is with the ruling party. The demand was against the ruling party, and if the committee appointed for an inquiry has a ruling party majority, then how the truth will come out is a valid concern,” he said.

“If the Supreme Court, which no one can influence if they were to conduct the inquiry, then there was a better chance of the truth coming to light. So, after the Supreme Court announced an inquiry, there was no significance of a JPC probe. It was not needed,” he said. Responding to the question on why Congress was pushing for a JPC, he said he cannot say what the intent behind the demand was, while adding the reasoning could be that the media would report the JPC proceedings on a daily basis and “perhaps someone” wanted the issue to “fester for two to four months”. He claimed that the truth would not have come out through a JPC probe. It is pertinent to mention that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been at the forefront of the demand for the JPC in the matter. Pawar, whose party has kept away from the Opposition protests on Adani Group, also questioned the Hindenburg report while expressing his displeasure over disruptions in Parliament over the issue. The NCP chief said he was not aware of the antecedents of United States-based Hindenburg Research, which has alleged stock manipulation and accounting fraud in the Adani Group. “One foreign company takes a position about the situation in the country. We should decide how much focus should be on this. Instead of this (JPC), a Supreme Court panel is more effective,” he said. “Such statements were given by other individuals earlier too and there was a ruckus in Parliament for a few days, but this time outof-proportion importance was given to the issue,” the 82-yearold Pawar said. “The issues that were kept, who kept them, we had never heard of these people who gave the statement, what is the background. When they raise issues that cause a ruckus across the country, the cost is borne by the country’s economy, we cannot disregard these things. It seems this was targeted,” Pawar said while referring to the said report.

Later, the Congress in response to Pawar’s comments, stated that the NCP may have its own views, but 19 like-minded parties are “convinced that the Pm-linked Adani Group issue is real and very serious”. Party General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said, “All 20 like-minded Opposition parties, including NCP, are united and will be together in saving the Constitution and our democracy from the BJP’S assaults and in defeating the BJP’S divisive and destructive political, social and economic agenda.”