The budget session of Parliament started on January 31 this year with President Droupadi Murmu's address. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Union Budget 2023-24 on February 1. Since then, there has been no business in Parliament due to continued logjam over the ongoing Adani row. The Opposition has demanded that the government should come up and respond in Parliament about the Adani stock issue following which disruption has been witnessed in both Houses. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in his address in the Lok Sabha has raised the Adani issue. He questioned Adani’s rise over the last eight years, and asked what was PM Narendra Modi’s “relationship” with the businessman. Rahul went on to allege that rules were bent or changed to allow the group’s entry into different businesses. He also alleged that India’s foreign policy was being tailored to benefit the billionaire.
"How many times you travelled together (on a foreign trip) with Adaniji? How many times Adaniji joined you later on your foreign trip? How many times he reached you after you landed on a foreign country? How many times Adaniji bagged a contract in a foreign country after your visit there?" Rahul Gandhi asked Modi. He also asks how much money did Adani give to the BJP in last 20 years? "After the BJP took over the government in 2014, it changed the existing rule that only a company/person with experience in aviation should be given the responsibility of developing airports," Rahul Gandhi said. After this six airports were handed over to Adani. Then India's most profitable airport 'Mumbai Airpot' was hijacked from GVK using agencies like CBI, ED & was given to Adani by Govt of India and this was facilitated by the prime minister of this country, he added. The Congress MP, earlier, had said the Narendra Modi-led government was doing its best to ensure that no discussion takes place in Parliament regarding the Adani Group's rout.During his speech, Rahul also ripped into the government over the new Agniveer recruitment scheme for the armed forces, claiming that the people he met during his yatra said that the scheme came from NSA Ajit Doval and RSS and not the home ministry or Army.