Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, who had been accusing the Modi government of being hands-in-gloves with the industrialists of the country, had a change of heart after Gautam Adani announced ₹65000 crores worth of investment in Congress-ruled Rajasthan.
The Gandhi dynast was caught on the wrong foot after Rajasthan Chief Minister heaped praises on the Adani Group. Over the years, Rahul Gandhi had hurled abuses, spread falsehoods and accused industrialists of crony capitalism.
The Congress leader was forced to tweak the anti-business sentiment, which he helped foster in the Indian psyche. “I am in no way against the corporates, and businesses, but against the complete monopolization of businesses as that weakens the country,” Rahul Gandhi said in his defence of doublespeak.
“And today what we are seeing is a complete monopolization of all businesses. And that’s my problem,” he further added. Just last month, Rahul Gandhi insulted a female journalist from NDTV because the controversial media house was acquired by the Adani group.
I oppose the fact that BJP govt has made 2-3 people the monopolist in every business in India, I am against this concentration of capital, I am not against business or co-operates: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi pic.twitter.com/sPp3tpBhQt
— ANI (@ANI) October 8, 2022
He repeatedly told the female journalist that she has a ‘new owner’ before eventually moving on to not answering her original question.
The Congress party had also helped ‘mainstream’ the disinformation that the Adani group, which manages the operations of the Mundra port, was somehow responsible for 3000 kg of heroin found in a shipment from Afghanistan in September 2021.
The Adani group was forced to issue a media statement in a bid to nullify the unsubstantiated claims of the grand-old party. In June this year, Rahul Gandhi amplified fake news published by leftist propaganda outlet, The Wire, which suggested that PM Modi influenced a deal in Sri Lanka on the behest of the Adani group.
Even though the Sri Lankan president rejected any such collusion or favour for any specific company, Rahul Gandhi seemed upset that an Indian company won a bid for a project in Sri Lanka.
Again in April 2022, the Congress IT cell Head Saral Patel tweeted fake news about ‘Adani Apples’ and alleged that they were dominating the market over the produce of local farmers. On being called out on social media, he quietly deleted his tweet without citing any apology or word of regret.
In March last year, Rahul Gandhi accused PM Modi of helping his ‘two friends’ Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani. When reports emerged that Gautam Adani gained the highest amount of wealth in 2021, it was a perfect moment for Rahul Gandhi to use the news to attack industrialists.
In the year 2011, the chairman of the Adani Group was the highest wealth creator in the country, with his wealth doubling to Rs 33,211 crore. At that time, Dr Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister of India, while Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. However, Rahul Gandhi avoided mention of that to avoid discrepancies in his fallible conspiracy theory.
In December 2020, the Congress party also accused the Adani Group of transferring the ownership of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International airport in Ahmedabad to its name for ‘free’ (with the supposed help from the Modi government).
Adani Airports was simply involved in managing the operations of the Ahmedabad Airport, just like the GMR Group, an infrastructure behemoth, manages the operations of the Indira Gandhi Airport in Delhi. Besides, Adani Airports won the contract to through a competitive bidding process.
The fake news about crony capitalism and favouritism, disseminated by Congress on a regular basis, led to real-life acts of violence and vandalism during the anti-farm law protests. Jio towers, belonging to the Ambani group, were damaged.
The ‘protestors’ had targeted Reliance Jio towers because of claims that Reliance, as well as the Adani group, were out to exploit farmers with help from the now-scrapped farm laws. The site managers were slapped and abused for trying to stop the protestors from destroying the infrastructure.
Shri Rahul Gandhi on Adani investment in Rajasthan@RahulGandhi#BharatJodoYatra pic.twitter.com/EX2QZn5iXO
— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) October 8, 2022
“Rajasthan CM didn’t give any preferential treatment to Adani or use his political power to help his (Gautam Adani’s) business. The day they do that, I will stand in the opposition,” Rahul Gandhi said recently while defending the investment made by the Adani group in Rajasthan.
The Congress scion thus insinuated that other States, run by non-Congress governments, had been able to draw investments from large business houses due to favouritism. This is quite rich coming from a party that has been at the helm of kickbacks and massive scams during its reign from 2004-2014.
