The Maharashtra Congress held a protest in Mumbai and shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani.
The rally started at Girgaon and ended at Raj Bhavan, with state unit chief Nana Patole, former chief ministers Prithviraj Chavan and Ashok Chavan, among others, in attendance. A delegation later submitted a memorandum to Governor Ramesh Bais.
When Adani was looting the money of SBI and LIC, what was our chowkidar doing? It is highly unfortunate the demand of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to conduct a probe into allegations against the Adani group has been expunged from official records (in Parliament), Patole alleged.
The term chowkidar (watchman) was at the centre of a Bharatiya Janata Party campaign in the 2019 general elections to highlight's Modi's zero tolerance towards corruption and wrongdoings.
There is a fear that investments made by LIC and SBI in Adani firms may be lost. Those who try to raise their voice against the Centre are facing legal action and jail. If the Modi government continues in this manner, democracy will end soon in India, Patole claimed.
Those who join the BJP under pressure (of probe agencies) do not face legal action from thereon, Patole added. US short seller Hindenburg Research has alleged the Adani group was engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud, and used offshore shell companies to inflate stock prices.
The group has denied all Hindenburg allegations, calling them malicious, baseless and a calculated attack on India. Incidentally, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday that the government has not set up any committee to probe these allegations, but stock market regulator SEBI was investigating market allegations against the Adani group.