This year's Budget Session is likely to stir a storm in Parliament, with Opposition leaders raising objections over Adani Group's response to the Hindenburg Research report. The Gautam Adani-owned Adani Group and the US-based Hindenburg Research locked horns on Sunday, with the former calling allegations against it in the report a "calculated attack on India".

Opposition party leaders hit out at the Adani Group for not addressing the "specific allegations" but rather calling it an attack on India. Some took to Twitter to question what the "New India" exactly is that Adani Group mentions in its response. Some leaders even raised doubts over the timing of the release of the report.

The report comes just ahead of the Budget Session 2023 which will begin on February 1 and is likely to conclude in April - with a recess from February 14 to March 12 to enable department-related parliamentary standing committees to examine the demands for grants.

The Union Budget 2023 will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1. This will be the last full budget of the Narendra Modi government ahead of the 2024 general election.

What Opposition leaders said

Congress leader Manish Tewari asked "When did Adani become India?", while others brought up the matter of "LIC plowing more money into Adani’s flagship unit". Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge hit out at the Modi government and said: "LIC shares have lost ₹22,442 Cr in just 2 days...LIC is “Life Insurance Corporation” of India with 29 Cr Policyholders! Modi Govt changes its name to LOOT INVESTMENT for CRONIES!"

Y Sathish Reddy of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party said, "When did ‘Adani’ become ‘India’? In that case, why is the PM of India not reacting on the issue?" He added, "LIC is spending about $37 million as an anchor investor in a $2.5 billion new share sale by Adani!"

Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi sought "help" in listing "all that is India in New India", saying that Modi ji is India, India is Modiji; Adani group is India, India is Adani Group; BJP is India, India is BJP; Stock Market is India, India is Stock Market".

Meanwhile, Congress leader Sanjay Jha asked "What was the Finance Minister of India doing all this time? Where was SEBI? Where was the Ministry of Corporate Affairs? One Group accounted for nearly 80 percent of market capitalization growth in 2022, and nobody cared? None! It took a small firm in US to expose it?"

TMC Mahua Moitra, who had earlier warned of "market manipulation", "round-tripping" and "fraud" by the Adani, said she was "glad" that the Hindenburg Research used her "letters to SEBI as part of their investigative work and reached a “logical conclusion” even if SEBI couldn’t!"

Jawhar Sircar, a Rajya Sabha MP from TMC, said, "Adani’s scam shows how all regulatory bodies had failed or were made to fail — RBI, Finance Ministry, SEBI, ED, CBI, NSE, etc. They are all packed with Modi’s own men. God knows how much India will all lose because of this Modi crony!"

Congress leader Praveen Chakravarty said, "5 crore Indian families gave money to LIC to help their families in case of an unfortunate death. LIC used Rs.72,000cr of this money to buy Adani's shares. Money for a loved one's death is used to keep Adani's companies alive. Whose lives is LIC insuring? Yours or Adani's?"

Hindenburg Research Vs Adani Group

The Hindenburg Research alleged that the Adani Group had "engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades". The disclosure sparked a USD 51-billion sell-off in shares of the group companies over two trading sessions.

The Adani group has, however, rubbished the charges and termed the report as a "malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations". It said the allegations made by the short seller are a "calculated attack" on India, its institutions and its growth story, adding that the accusations are "nothing but a lie".

In response to the Adani Group's rebuttal on Sunday night, Hindenburg Research said that the group has failed to specifically answer 62 out of the 88 questions that the firm had posed to the group. "Among the questions, it did answer, the group largely confirmed or attempted to sidestep our findings," Hindenburg said in its response. Sharing its reply to Adani in a Twitter post, it said: "Fraud cannot be obfuscated by nationalism or a bloated response that ignores every key allegation we raised".

First Published:Jan 30, 2023 12:08 PM IST