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Published Nov 27, 2024 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Nov 27, 2024 | 8:00 AM
Revanth Reddy with Gautam Adani and Karan Adani. (X)
In a first sign of wilting under pressure, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Monday, 25 November, rejected Adani’s offer to donate ₹100 crore to set up a Young India Skill University. It was obvious that the party’s top brass had asked him to make a public statement.
Revanth Reddy’s statement came barely days after Telangana Congress chief Mahesh Goud told media persons that the ruling party in the state will reconsider its dealings with Adani group. Under fire for “hypocrisy” of its leaders criticising Adani while its governments signs deals and MoUs, Congress seems to have finally told its Telangana chief minister ‘enough is enough’.
Could there be untouchable industrialists without being blacklisted?
There are two views here. One that of a party and the other of a government. A party is ideology-based but the government goes by facts and evidence vis-a-vis its relations with an industrial group.
For now, Gautam Adani is an untouchable businessman, at least in the eyes of Congress. It views Adani as one who employs dubious methods to get a larger slice of the government pie to feather his own nest. It says the Adani Group epitomizes cronyism.
When the news broke out of the indictment of Adani in the US court for paying bribes to Indian officials for solar energy projects, the BRS intensified its attack on Congress. Telangana PCC President Mahesh Kumar Goud, answering repeated questions from the media on the fate of MoUs signed with Adani, had to say that if necessary the government would revisit them.
The BRS, which is raring to see the last of Revanth Reddy in the state, exploited what it sees as a digression from the Congress’s stand at the national level. In Telangana, the opposition party tried to embarrass the Congress national leadership. Finally, Revanth Reddy had to take a U-turn and announce his decision to reject the offer of ₹100 crore for the Young India University.
Earlier, in the wake of Hindenburg Research’s indictment of Adani that he had resorted to accounting fraud, manipulation of stock prices, and exploitation of tax havens, the state government was forced to defend its stand.
On one occasion, industries minister D Sridhar Babu had pointed out what Mahesh Kumar Goud had recently said: “If necessary the agreements would be reviewed.”
But so far Adani has not been convicted and is not blacklisted. There are now only allegations against him that he had bent rules. Which means he is still in the grey area that exists between white and black. In such a scenario, how should the state government navigate itself?
