Can Congress, YSRCP or any other Opposition parties get away with criticising the BJP when their own leaders are seen in uneasy proximity to a man accused of corrupting political leaders?
Published Nov 22, 2024 | 2:29 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 22, 2024 | 2:29 PM
YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Gautam Adani, Narendra Modi, and Rahul Gandhi.
To understand why billionaire Gautam Adani is controversial for his political connections, you only have to look at Azim Premji to get a study in contrast.
The Bengaluru-based technology tycoon presiding over Wipro had, as of last year, contributed a total of $29 billion to philanthropic charities, which is more than twice his current estimated personal worth of more than $12 billion.
Yet, it is rare to find a photograph of Premji with top political leaders, including state chief ministers or cabinet ministers.
Now, contrast that with Adani, who is now in the news after being indicted by US law enforcers in a violation of America’s anti-corruption laws for trying to influence officials and politicians in India to up the purchase of solar power and using that to raise funds in global markets.
Over the past decade, Adani has been photographed on a flight with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the BJP, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy of the Congress, and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the defeated former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh from the YSRCP, besides other top-level politicians cutting across parties.
Photo opportunity meetings are now being linked to bribes-for-deals allegations and accusations on a scale and in the global limelight in a manner that goes far beyond the stonewalled comfort of India’s sluggish political system.
If pictures could tell a story, you may describe Gautam Adani as a photo opportunist.
While Gautam Adani’s allegedly unfair proximity to fellow Gujarati Modi and the BJP is one part of the controversy, the other clearly is that the Congress also has a few questions to answer because the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the party’s unofficial crown prince Rahul Gandhi is at the forefront of a campaign that accuses Modi and Adani of having an unholy nexus on a number of counts.
While a photograph of a smiling Jagan Reddy with the Adani supremo has started doing the rounds in a link to the solar power scam that the US is investigating, one also has to digitally dust up a smiling Revanth Reddy taking a ₹100 crore donation handout from Adani to fund a state-blessed skills university.
Agreed that this is a work of charity and the move was transparent, but questions loom in the minds of Indians, for whom perception and reality often go together — and increasingly so.
Does a chief minister have to personally pick up a donation cheque in the glare of cameras?
Does an industrialist have to necessarily take a selfie to give away a micro-fraction of his wealth?
Can Congress, YSRCP or any other Opposition parties get away with criticising the BJP when their own leaders are seen in uneasy proximity to a man accused of corrupting political leaders?
Is there a rot in India’s political system or public life where there is no effort to match principles and practice or be accountable in some way beyond loose self-justifying claims?
For the record, Adani’s official fortunes are now estimated at about $57 billion (₹4.8 lakh crore), more than four times Premji’s personal worth eroded by generous contributions to charities.
It is not just the two famous Reddys of the Deccan who have been seen with Adani in what critics would call politically compromising positions.
You can google Gautam Adani’s name with Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar and Congress leader Ashok Gehlot to find smiling photographs that should raise eyebrows if not hackles. Pawar, in fact, has described Adani as a friend.
True, there is an official logic that every state wants investors and philanthropists alike and Gautam Adani is among them. Yet, every political claim takes a jolt and reeks of double standards or hypocrisy when there is gunfire aimed at one end of the nexus but not the other.
India’s democracy has flaws but political literacy has grown enough for cynicism to be part of a regular intellectual diet of citizens.
Personally, I believe that in alleged cases of political corruption, the higher accountability is of the elected leader or government officials who hold public offices. However, the US law under which Adani is being indicted itself is proof that trying to unethically influence business decisions can be a serious violation of public accountability in a democracy, apart from being illegal in several instances.
If you think the license-permit-quota raj that Congress was accused of ended with its liberalisation programme in 1991, think again.
What we have now is what I call an Allocation-Approval-Accessibility Raj in which infrastructure-linked projects that need state patronage of one kind or another, which is linked to political largesse, either of the shady variety like a payoff or a semi-transparent variety, such as an election bond, a generous donation or a photo opportunity that conveys political clout to bankers, investors or business partners.
Think capital subsidy. Think power pricing. Think land allocation.
Whatever the outcome of the allegations is, the simple fact is that state-backed deals have helped the rise of Adani, the bulk of whose fortunes have been built on regulation-intensive industries such as ports, power plants or airports. And it is apparent that his approach has been to please leaders of all ideological hues and party affiliations.
New India demands a new level of accountability. The US law under which Adani has been indicted shows that the “supply side” of political influence is as important as the demand side in matters of public accountability.
We must wait for law enforcement details in both the US and India to see where it all goes. With a Modi-friendly Donald Trump set to take charge at the White House as US President in January, cynics do believe that the current furore will die down as Trump values loyalty over anything else in a system that enables the powerful to violate laws (Reminder: Trump is a convicted felon in a case of falsification of records).
However, it is time to ask what India could do with a law similar to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) under which business people trying to influence government decisions or obstruct justice can attract prosecution.
Officially, India’s Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) clearly criminalises both the act of giving and receiving a bribe, making it punishable. But that is barely known, which shows the level of law enforcement in India.
There is, in the end, no substitute for political awareness. Voters do tend to punish politicians in some way.
For Opposition parties training their guns on the alleged Modi-Adani nexus, there is a gentle word of advice: As you sharpen your stone to aim at your rivals, make sure your house is not made of glass.
(Views expressed here are personal. The writer is a senior journalist and commentator who has worked for Reuters, The Economic Times, Business Standard, and Hindustan Times. He tweets on X as @madversity)
