The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: During a public rally in Jamshedpur on May 19 (Saturday), Prime Minister Modi alleged that the Congress and their allied parties oppose business and investment in India.
“Congress and their ally parties, wherever they have governments, I am challenging those chief ministers and this is not my political statement…their ‘Shehzada’ keeps opposing business industries, businessmen and investments. Which businessman will go and invest in those states? What will happen to the youths of those states?…all investors who come to me say that they won’t go to these states because of their ideology against them, businessmen are verbally abused. Their investors will think that since ‘Shehzada’ has this kind of thoughts, his ally parties would have same thoughts as well,” said Modi.
In a campaign speech at Telangana’s Karimnagar on May 8, Modi accused industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani of sending illicit money to the Congress.
Responding to these allegations, party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Jairam Ramesh demanded a probe into the alleged “tempos of illicit money” that Ambani and Adani, as claimed by Modi, sent to the Congress.
Interestingly, the prime minister has not uttered a word about the damning revelations contained in the Hindenburg report about Gautam Adani‘s alleged stock market manipulations, accounting irregularities and undisclosed transactions. In the resultant stock market turmoil, the Adani Group’s net worth was halved.
In an exclusive interview on India Today TV, on being asked about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s charge that his government favours some select industrialists, he said he is not ashamed to say that the country’s wealth creators should be respected.
“If I have done dishonesty, then I should be hanged. If I have (benefitted anyone) in the wrong way,a then I should be hanged. But I will respect the wealth creators in my country,” the prime minister added.
The changing tones in the prime minister’s views on Ambani and Adani throughout the election campaign, coupled with his silence on the Adani-Hindenburg matter – which remains unresolved as the market regulator has missed several deadlines for its report – have created confusion on his stance on addressing wealth inequalities in India.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the richest only got richer during the pandemic.