“Modi ji is using SEBI like fuel to save his dear friend’s Tempo!”
Prime Minister Modi and his A1 friend, Adani, have made every possible effort to protect themselves from the mega Adani scandal! The Indian National Congress’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) investigation into the Adani mega scandal goes far beyond the revelations made by Hindenburg Research’s reports. The scams and frauds related to the Adani group are spread across every dimension of the political economy.
1. Misuse of India’s investigative agencies to secure Adani’s monopoly in ports, airports, cement, and other critical sectors. Modani’s FDI Policy: Fear, Deception, Intimidation – Actions and Outcomes –
a. Action: CBI raided the offices of NDTV and the home of its founder Prannoy Roy (June 6, 2017).
Outcome: The Adani group now owns a 64.71% stake in NDTV (March 6, 2023).
b. Action: CCI team raided the offices of ACC and Ambuja Cement (December 11, 2020).
Outcome: With the acquisition of Ambuja Cement, the Adani group became the second-largest cement company (September 16, 2022).
c. Action: ED raided the offices of the GVK group at Mumbai Airport (July 28, 2020).
Outcome: Adani Airport Holdings now holds about a 98% stake in GVK Airport Developers (July 14, 2021).
d. Action: Income Tax officials raided the office of Quint in Noida (October 11, 2018).
Outcome: Adani acquired a 49% stake in Quintillion Business Media for ₹48 crores (March 27, 2023).
e. Action: Income Tax officials raided the Krishna Patnam Port in Nellore (March 29, 2018).
Outcome: Adani Ports and SEZ completed the acquisition of Krishna Patnam Port (October 5, 2020).
f. Action: Ultratech Cement (Kumar Mangalam Birla) beat Adani in acquiring India Cements (June 27, 2024).
Outcome: After an 8-year investigation, the CBI filed a corruption case against Aditya Birla Group’s Hindalco (August 6, 2024).
2. Extraordinary favoritism shown by public sector banks and institutions, especially SBI and LIC, in buying Adani’s shares was openly exposed. They also gave loans to major projects including the Adani Copper Plant in Mundra, the Airport in Navi Mumbai, and the UP-Expressway Project.
Major investors in Adani Enterprises’ FPO included LIC (which bid ₹299 crores), State Bank of India Employees Pension Fund (which bid ₹299 crores), and SBI Life Insurance Company (which bid ₹125 crores). LIC and SBI participated in the FPO despite the fact that the market value had fallen significantly below the issue price and they already held a large stake in the Adani group.
a. Were LIC and SBI instructed to use the savings of millions of Indians to once again save the Adani group?
b. While it’s one thing to save public sector companies, using the savings of 30 crore loyal policyholders to make your friends richer is another. How did LIC allocate such a large amount to the risky Adani group, from which even private fund managers stayed away?
c. Isn’t it the government’s duty to ensure that major public sector financial institutions are more conservative in their investments compared to their private sector counterparts?
3. Subordinating India’s foreign policy interests to the needs of Adani Enterprises at the expense of India’s position in the neighborhood.
Bangladesh: Adani imports coal from Australia to generate power in Jharkhand and supply it to Bangladesh. It is the only company allowed to do so through a power purchase agreement that has been highly controversial. Now, the company is allowed to sell that power within India itself.
Sri Lanka (Port Terminal): On September 20, 2021, India secured a 35-year lease on Colombo’s West Container Terminal. The Sri Lankan Cabinet spokesperson said that India had “nominated” Adani Ports as a partner. In a March 5, 2023, interview, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry called it a “government-to-government” port project.
On what basis did the Prime Minister “choose” and “nominate” Adani Ports for this government-to-government deal? Did any other Indian firm get the opportunity to invest?
Sri Lanka (Wind Power Project): Prime Minister Modi also forced Sri Lanka to award a contract for a 484 MW wind power project in Mannar district to Adani. Former Ceylon Electricity Board chief MMC Ferdinando testified before Sri Lanka’s Parliament on June 10, 2022, that on October 24, 2021, “President [Gotabaya Rajapaksa] called me after a meeting and said that Prime Minister Modi of India is pressuring him to hand over the project to the Adani group.” Although he later retracted these comments under pressure, Ferdinando’s statements fully exposed how the Prime Minister is imposing his cronies on neighboring countries. On what basis was Adani nominated for this contract?
4. Handing over India’s strategic relationship with Israel to a single company, Adani
Since Prime Minister Modi’s close friend Gautam Adani accompanied him on a trip to Israel in July 2017, he has been granted yet another monopoly. This is part of the lucrative bilateral defense relationship. India has several startups and established firms that develop, manufacture, and operate drones, including Hindustan Aeronautics and Bharat Dynamics. Yet, Israel’s Elbit Systems was forced to establish a joint venture with the Adani group to manufacture drones, despite the latter having no prior experience in this field.
The results are clear. The Adani group has assembled four imported Hermes 900 drone kits—two each for the Indian Army and Indian Navy—and rebranded them as Drishti 10 Starliner. While only manufacturing the airframes, Adani has claimed that the drone contains 70% indigenous content.
5. Over-invoicing of coal and power equipment not only promoted money-laundering and abnormal profits but also increased electricity bills for ordinary citizens.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) found evidence that the Adani group was over-invoicing coal imports and siphoning off thousands of crores from India. While the PM may have ‘managed’ the investigation and made the country’s investigative agencies dormant, the truth still came out. The Financial Times studied thirty of Adani’s coal shipments between 2019 and 2021, totaling 3.1 million tons. It found that the total declared cost in Indonesia, including shipping and insurance, was $142 million (₹1,037 crores), while the declared value to Indian customs was $215 million (₹1,570 crores). This equates to a 52% profit margin, or ₹533 crores siphoned off in just thirty shipments. Adani’s Modi-made magic is visible even in low-margin businesses like coal trading.
6. Irregularly extending leases to the Adani group on publicly-owned properties at extremely low prices.
a. Transfer of Airports: Despite objections from NITI Aayog and the Finance Ministry, the Prime Minister handed over six airports to the Adani group.
b. Transfer of Ports: Without participating in any competitive bidding and with the help of government raids on private port owners—who miraculously decided to sell their assets to Adani afterward—Adani became India’s largest port operator. Over the last decade, Adani’s share of total port traffic has risen from 10% to 24%, and today it controls 57% of cargo volumes outside India’s government-owned “major ports.” By handing control of a crucial strategic sector to his close friend—who faces serious criminality allegations—the Prime Minister has made both himself and India a global laughingstock.
Hindenburg’s allegations do not mention any of the above. Their charges are limited to those involved in capital markets—stock manipulation, accounting fraud, and conflicts of interest within regulatory agencies like SEBI. Hindenburg is just the tip of the iceberg. Only a JPC can truly and fully investigate and expose the real extent of this Modani mega scandal.
SEBI’s investigation and transactions?
Excessive Delay: SEBI took 18 months instead of the Supreme Court-mandated two months to investigate the serious allegations against Adani, and it is still not complete.
Conflict of Interest: It was revealed that SEBI’s chairperson had invested in funds that were part of the same 360 One Fund family used by Vinod Adani, Chang, and Ahli to siphon off the proceeds from over-invoiced power equipment to violate the same ownership rules that SEBI is allegedly investigating.
Transparency: SEBI’s 2008 policy prevents officials from holding a position of profit and/or receiving a salary or professional fees from other business activities. The current SEBI chairperson joined the regulator in 2017 and was appointed to the top position in March 2022. According to public documents, during those 7 years, her consulting firm, Agora Advisory Private Limited, in which Buch holds 99% shareholding, earned ₹3.71 crores ($442,025) in revenue. The chairperson stated that the consultancy firms were disclosed to SEBI and that her husband used these firms for his consulting business after retiring from Unilever in 2019. However, according to company records for the financial year ending March 2024, the SEBI chairperson still holds shares in the consulting firm. Therefore, she may still be sharing in the firm’s profits, which, as mentioned
