Congress accuses govt of 'foisting' Adani Group on Sri Lanka

The Congress accused the Centre on Sunday of lobbying in favour of the Adani Group for projects in Sri Lanka and foisting the business conglomerate on the important neighbour of IndiaThe opposition party has been persistent on its attack on the government weeks after Adani Group stocks took a beating on the bourses in the wake of USbased short seller Hindenburg Research making a litany of allegations including fraudulent transactions and shareprice manipulation on the conglomerate headed by industrialist Gautam AdaniThe Adani Group has dismissed the charges as lies saying it complies with all laws and disclosure requirementsPosing a set of three questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of the partys Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun series Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said they had previously asked Modi on his apparent haste to enrich the Adani Group at the expense of Bangladesh and now want answers on how he has been foisting the business group on another important neighbour Sri LankaParliament resumes on March 13 We are preparing for our interventions to be expunged But what cannot be erased out is Hum Adanike Hain Kaun26 bringing the total of direct questions of the PM so far to 78 Ramesh tweetedHe said the governments of India Japan and Sri Lanka then headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe signed a memorandum on May 28 2019 to develop the East Container Terminal in the Colombo South portA year later on June 9 2020 the Sri Lankan cabinet headed by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa announced that India had selected Adani Ports as its foreign terminal operator Ramesh saidHe added that following the unexpected cancellation of the deal the Rajapaksa government instead offered Colombos West Container Terminal to India and Japan under a 35year build operate and transfer lease which was finalised on September 30 2021A Sri Lankan cabinet spokesperson said that India had nominated Adani Ports as the partner Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry described it as a governmenttogovernment port project in a 5 March 2023 interview On what basis did you select and nominate Adani Ports for this governmenttogovernment dealRamesh asked in his statement addressed to ModiAlso Read AIMIM leader Imtiaz Jaleel seeks referendum on Aurangabad renamingDid any other Indian firms have the opportunity to consider investing or did you simply reserve the deal for your close friends he askedThe Atal Bihari Vajpayee governments 2002 decision not to invest in the strategic Hambantota port cleared the path for Chinese firms to enter Sri Lankas ports sector he allegedRamesh said Indias investment in Colombo is partly driven by the need to counter Chinas expansion in the immediate neighbourhoodHowever as we pointed out on March 3 2023 the Adani Group has disturbing connections with Chinese nationals such as the Adani family confidant Chang ChungLing aka LingoChang who has been involved among other things in violating UN sanctions against China and Pakistans ally North Korea he saidAre these connections not worthy of investigation by ordinarily hyperactive investigative agencies the former Union minister askedHe accused the prime minister of indulging in hectic lobbying for his cronies including for a 500megawatt wind power project in Sri Lankas Mannar districtThe former head of the Ceylon Electricity Board MMC Ferdinando testified on June 10 2022 before the Parliament of Sri Lanka that on October 24 2021 the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa summoned me after a meeting and said that Indias Prime Minister Modi is pressuring him to hand over the project to the Adani Group the Congress leader allegedAlthough he retracted the comments under pressure Ferdinandos remarks had completely exposed the nexus of crony capitalism he saidAre you under the impression that your main job is to secure contracts for your friend Gautam Adani in India and outside rather than work for the people of India Ramesh asked the prime minister and urged him to break his silence on the issueThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever