Taking the cue from Rahul Gandhi’s charge in parliament during his fiery speech over the Adani stock scam on Feb 7, 2023, that ‘Modi Is Adani’, and seeing how it has rattled Modi and BJP, DMK MP Kalanidhi Veeraswamy is not the only one who is now openly accusing Modi of extensive corruption using the office of the PM.
Other opposition leaders have gone further, accusing him of being the ‘Real Benami Owner’ of Adani’s assets. AAP President and Delhi CM Kejriwal has even quoted a BJP MP saying “Adani is a front; he is managing Modi’s money on a commission basis”.
As a result, Modi practically faces the direct charge of unprecedented levels of corruption by any Prime Minister or President post WW2.
On his part, the PM indicted himself by his conduct in parliament and by the conduct of Constitutional institutions he controls. On the floor of parliament, he offered no answers to any pertinent questions asked by Rahul Gandhi about the Adani stock scam and failed to even mention Adani in his over an hour-long speech in which he clearly appeared to be in a state of panic, fury and vindication typical of insecure autocrats who face exposure of illegal acts.
Instead, he made personal attacks and indulged in trying to shame Rahul Gandhi, finally concluding in delusionary and shameful self-glorification, saying “ Hum Ek Akela Kitno Pe Bhari hai” ( I alone am sufficient for the opposition). This is not the conduct of an upright, honest man. It is theatrics of a guilty, scared megalomaniac.
Similarly, if Modi has nothing to do with the scam, why deny a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the stock scam exposed by Hindenberg Research? Every such scam in the past has been subjected to a JPC probe. Why is the entire BJP defending and protecting Adani from prosecution and investigation? Surely not out of charity. Logically, they should be defending the BJP and Modi, not Adani who is merely a businessman. Yet, we have Union Ministers and other BJP leaders and spokesperson defending Adani 24×7 with all kinds of untenable arguments and retorts.
Moreover, if Rahul’s questions have no substance, why was his speech in parliament expunged? If Modi has nothing to hide, why is he afraid to have Rahul in Parliament, so much so that he was disqualified from parliament, violating all established legal precedents, laws and Constitutional principles?
Fact is, Modi knows that the Indian National Congress (INC) and, hence, the rest of the opposition too has got him by the throat over the Adani scam. Every other day brings more revelations of shady investments and shady offshore companies having invested in the Adani Group.
The fact also remains that the INC is the primary challenger to the BJP with a pan-India presence and the Adani scam has all the ingredients to bring down any government on the planet. Added to this, Rahul Gandhi’s successful 4000 km long Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) has had its political impact as demonstrated by the millions who joined the walk as far as they could, which left the counterfeit bribing and blackmailing Chanakyas of the BJP worried. The BJP-RSS wanted a Congress Mukt Bharat, but instead the BJY accomplished just the opposite, in the process producing a more dynamic and invigorated Rahul Gandhi who is now making waves, additionally armed with an extremely potent weapon in his hands: PM being involved in the largest ever stock scam. Hence Rahul Gandhi has been brutally targeted.
More importantly, this scam is not scripted by a businessman and one politician. It cannot be, considering the dynamics, the magnitude of the scam, the ideological allegiances of the main players and government collusion. It could not have occurred without the active and demonstrated patronage of PM Modi, allowing calloused violation of laws, illegal immunity from scrutiny and collusion by Stock Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
Likewise, corruption and scams of this magnitude involving a PM also need a motive greater than wealth. The scam is not merely about accumulating money for the sake of accumulating it. PM Modi has no family to pass it on to; his family is RSS, though minion Adani may have one, but the common factor between the two and between Modi and other cronies is that they deeply and visibly patronize the BJP-RSS ideology, thereby also its fascist goals.
Rather, it has all the appearances of a Modi-BJP-RSS-Adani conspiracy to generate funds to attempt to create a Hindurashtra which costs a lot of money. Adani only enjoyed the superficial perks of aiding the long-drawn conspiracy, beginning in 2002 when Modi became Gujarat CM. This is partly what the Gujarat Model really is: Loot national wealth through any means to create capital to attempt a Hindurashtra, now replicated nationally
For the opposition, this is an opportunity to neutralize these four entities that are a threat to India’s democracy. India may not be Modi or Adani or vice versa, but the fact is Modi is BJP and BJP is Modi. By hook or crook or due to laxity of other BJP leaders, Modi has become the central figure around whom the fortunes of the BJP depend. Knocking Modi down politically will leave the entire BJP in an awful mess with internal divisions which have been festering but subdued.
Further, if Adani, Modi and BJP go down due to the scam, it has a direct bearing on the RSS family. It needs increasing amount of money to pay its increased number of goons, conduct its daily communal rallies and to carry out its Anti-minority and anti-democracy activities all over the country. It’s anyone’s guess where the huge amount of funds required for all this comes from for the most part, particularly considering that RSS has also given Adani a clean chit.
Earlier, in June 2022, Adani pledged Rs 60,000 crore as charity for healthcare, education and skill development, with most of the charitable organizations linked to Adani being front organizations of the RSS or belonging to the Hindutva fold. There is no data on the un-declared and under-hand donations common in India that have been made to the RSS family since the last 10 years and beyond by the cronies.
What now remains is only for ‘Modani’ to be exposed with documented evidence. INC says it has the evidence and will produce it to a JPC, but a JPC probe is unlikely given that effectually it will be Modi who is the one who will be investigated, leaving INC the only option of releasing the evidence to the public. So what is it waiting for?
Opposition parties and democratic India must not squander this opportunity to put an end to a fascist regime which besides ruining the nation’s social fabric and economy and patronizing anarchy, has additionally brought India international disgrace year after year for the last 10 years.
Oliver D’Souza is an award winning author, an editor and an activist.
