New Delhi: Amid calls from the opposition for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the revelations made by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research against Securities and Exchange Bureau of India (SEBI) chief Madhabi Buch and her spouse, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) two key allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) – the Janata Dal (United) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) are treading carefully.
Last week, Hindenburg Research – whose 2023 report on the Adani group alleged price rigging of company shares – accused Buch and her husband of having held “stakes in both the obscure offshore funds used in the Adani money siphoning scandal,” citing “whistleblower documents”.
Speaking to The Wire, JD(U) political advisor and national spokesperson K.C.Tyagi said that the Congress and the opposition have involved themselves in a matter that involves the corporate sector.
“First the Congress and then the opposition have involved themselves in a matter that concerns the corporate sector. How many issues will they ask a JPC for?” he said.
The JD(U) was among the opposition parties that had demanded a JPC probe in March 2023, months after Hindenburg’s first report alleged stock manipulation by the Adani group – a charge that it has denied. JD(U) MP and now Union minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh aka Lallan Singh was also part of a human chain formed by parliamentarians demanding a JPC into the allegations made against the Adani group.
Since then, the JD(U) has switched back to the NDA, and along with the TDP, is crucial to the BJP-NDA government after the saffron party fell short of a majority on its own in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, winning only 240 seats.
When asked about the JD(U)’s earlier demand for a JPC, Tyagi said that he could not comment as he was not part of parliament.
Meanwhile the TDP, the BJP’s other key ally in parliament, has also struck a cautionary tone and said that the revelations made by Hindenburg in its report are “only allegations” at the moment.
“It’s just an allegation right now. We are waiting for the details. As an NDA partner and part of the government, we cannot simply blindly go by allegations. We have to get the details. So whatever team NDA decides we will go with that,” Jyothsna Tirunagari, TDP spokesperson told The Wire.
Meanwhile the Congress has continued to press for a JPC.
“The JPC investigation into the Adani Mega Scam goes far beyond the revelations made by Hindenburg Research’s reports,” said Congress MP and general secretary media and communications Jairam Ramesh.
Ramesh said that the key elements of the scam include misuse of India’s investigative agencies to secure Adani monopolies in ports, airports, cement and other critical sectors, “extraordinary favouritism” shown by government banks, particularly the SBI, in providing credit to key projects and coal and power equipment over-invoicing that raised the common citizen’s electricity bills.
“The Hindenburg allegations do not refer to any of the above. Its allegations are limited to those that deal with the capital markets – stock manipulation, accounting fraud, and conflict of interest in regulatory agencies. Hindenburg is only the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
“Only a JPC can investigate and unravel the true and full extent of this Modani mega-scam,” Ramesh added.
Earlier, the BJP had lashed out at the Congress following the allegations in the Hindenburg report. On Monday, BJP MP and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the Congress is conspiring to spread anarchy and instability in the Indian economy while naming Hungarian-American philanthropist Soros as the main investor in Hindenburg research and its ”fictitious report”.
