Launching a stinging attack on the Union government over the Adani-Hindenburg issue, TMC MP Mahua Moitra said on February 7 that the billionaire businessman had taken the country for a ride.
Without naming Adani, Moitra, while participating in the ‘Motion of Thanks to the Chairman’s Speech’ debate in Lok Sabha, said that a famous person whose name starts with ‘A’ and ends with ‘I’ and is not Advani, that reeks of crony capitalism, had fooled everyone, reported the PTI.
As he concluded his speech, there was confusion in the Lok Sabha between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP members. The president demurred, urging Moitra to avoid profanity, while Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi called on the TMC MP to apologize out of morality.
Meanwhile, Moitra requested that an investigation be ordered against the activities of the Adani group.
Quoting President Droupadi Murmu’s speech, Moitra said, “Every word I utter will be an offering and a truth in my ‘maha yagna’ of nation-building.”
“I want to start by saying that as a former investment banker, I want businesses to prosper. But I want honest, hard-working Indian businesses to push themselves and not be trapeze artists. As a fellow MP of mine likes to say, the president was always asking me not get mad. I won’t get mad at what I have to say. I’ll just say that we’ve all been fooled,” he said.
He even referred to the Adani group’s statement in which the latter said the Hindenburg short seller’s report was a calculated attack on India. “The pride of India is not the wealth of an individual, the pride of India lies in the strength of its institutional structures,” he said.
Giving the examples of Amazon and Microsoft, he mentioned that the way Company ‘A’ was operating was absolutely outrageous. “This man has been allowed to use LIC, SBI to get money whenever he wants,” he said.
“India is on its way to becoming the third largest economy in the world. Do not let it stain your time in government with a smell of crony capitalism. Please immediately order a full and thorough investigation of all matters. .. Our country’s reputation is at risk,” Moitra said.
Apart from this, Moitra claimed that the Parliament is not like the previous times where the biggest debates took place. “We can’t say China, we can’t say Pegasus, we can’t say BBC, we can’t say Morbi, we can’t say Raphael and sometimes we can’t even say Modi ji…” he said.
Since the Hindenburg Inquiry into Adani came to light and the budget session began, the opposition has been demanding either a joint parliamentary committee inquiry or a Supreme Court-supervised inquiry into allegations of fraud and manipulation in the Adani Group made by the US-based short film seller.