India’s Parliament was disrupted for a third day Thursday by opposition parties protesting the government’s silence over allegations against billionaire Gautam Adani, who was recently indicted in the U.S. for alleged fraud and a scheme to pay bribes.
As Speaker Om Birla convened the powerful lower house of Parliament, opposition members shot up from their seats and crowded the aisles, shouting anti-government slogans. The Congress and other opposition parties have accused the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of protecting Adani, an Indian coal magnate.
"I don’t appreciate the manner of protest,” Birla said, adjourning the session over the opposition disruptions. The session later resumed but was adjourned for the day with the deadlock between the government and the opposition continuing.
Proceedings in Parliament's upper house were also adjourned, and the Congress party was unyielding in its stance.
The opposition called for a joint committee to investigate Adani’s companies, which include agriculture, renewable energy, coal and infrastructure.
Adani, 62, one of Asia’s richest men, was thrust into the spotlight last week when U.S. prosecutors in New York charged him a nd seven of his associates with securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and wire fraud. The charges allege that Adani duped investors in a massive solar project in India by concealing that it was being facilitated by bribes.
The indictment outlines an alleged scheme to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials.
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The Adani Group, in a statement last week, said the allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless.
“The charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. All possible legal recourse will be sought,” the statement said.
In the absence of a statement by the Indian government, Amit Malviya, the governing Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT head, also said in a post on the social media platform X that the U.S. charges are “allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty,” which critics interpreted as a show of support by the Modi government for the Adani Group.
The controversy has already affected Adani’s interests overseas. Kenya’s president canceled multimillion-dollar deals with the Adani Group for airport modernization and energy projects.
Adani will also face scrutiny in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
A Sri Lankan government spokesperson said earlier this week that it is reviewing projects to be implemented by the Adani Group in Sri Lanka. The group was set to invest over $440 million under a 20-year agreement to develop 484 megawatts of wind power in the northeastern regions of Sri Lanka and develop a terminal in the Colombo port.
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“We are taking it seriously. The foreign ministry and the finance ministry are inquiring into it. We will take the decision according to the reports of both ministries,” spokesperson Nalinda Jayatissa said,
Bangladesh's interim government is reviewing an agreement under which the Adani Group supplies electricity to Bangladesh from a power project in India.