By G Krishna Mohan Rao*
The opposition parties received a major setback to their unity moves following the two-hour-long meeting yesterday in Mumbai between veteran Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar and the controversial businessman Gautam Adani.
All through, Sharad Pawar, four-time Chief Minister of Maharashtra and three-time Union Minister, was a pillar of strength for the entire Opposition during the three-month-long budget session which witnessed uproar on the alleged irregularities of Adani conglomerate. His sudden change of stance towards Adani during the second week of April shocked the Opposition. The details of yesterday’s meeting were not known but the meeting came soon after the NCP supremo extended his support to the Adani Group on the Hindenburg row.
It is known that the recently concluded Budget Session of the Parliament was a total washout in the wake of the Congress-led Opposition’s demand for a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee ) probe into the Adani-Hindenburg controversy while the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposed it. Very recently Pawar criticised the Hindenburg Research’s report but said that Adani was being made a “target” and defended the latter saying he made a significant contribution to the petrochemical and energy sectors. Referring to the demand for a JPC by the Opposition, Pawar said such a probe would not serve any purpose.
Pawar tried to argue that he was not opposed to the JPC but felt that the present committee set up by the Supreme Court would be more effective in conducting the probe. Pawar justified his statement by saying a JPC has 21 members, of which 15 are from the ruling party and the remaining 6 from the Opposition. Despite this, if all the opposition parties wanted a JPC probe, then he had no objections. Coming under pressure, the NCP leader later said that although his party does not agree with the other opposition parties on JPC, it would not go against their stand for the sake of Opposition unity.
In this background, yesterday’s meeting between the two assumed significance with many opposition parties being upset at a time when they are facing several hurdles and contradictions among themselves in forging an anti-BJP alliance. So much so, the Trinamul Congress MP Mahua Moitra alleged that Gautam Adani tried to “ get to me” and some other people through his ‘wheeler dealers’ and obliquely criticised Pawar for meeting Adani.
Moitra, who figures prominently among those who have been piling pressure on the Narendra Modi government on the Adani controversy, made the disclosure hours after Gautam Adani met Pawar. No politician should engage with Adani until the government takes action on the charges levelled against him, Moitra said in her strong-worded tweet. Not only the Trinamul but also the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the Samajwadi Party, the Left parties, the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) are as of now backing the Congress party in demanding for a JPC into the allegations.
Only two days ago, the Congress Party had scaled up its attack on the Modi government over the Adani issue by raising the issue of Adani’s relative Jatin Mehta who it claimed swindled Rs. 7,000 crores of Indian banks (at that exchange rate a billion dollars) and fled this country “right under the nose of Narendra Modi” on June 2, 2016, to take citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Caribbean. “There is a group of companies based out of Mauritius, allegedly the owners of the shell companies that are pumping in money into the Adani group by the name of Monterosa. Jatin Mehta has direct links with Monterosa. In fact Monterosa’s Chairman and CEO served as Director in three companies alongside Jatin Mehta,” a Congress Party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate claimed.
One senior Congress leader today observed that there were expectations in political circles that Pawar would put out a tweet about his meeting with Adani, but he did not. Pawar knew that not only the Congress party but 10 other parties were also demanding the JPC. The opposition parties are also cut up with veteran leader Pawar for supporting Adani through an interview with NDTV, a news channel controlled by the Adani Group. In other words, by breaking ranks with the Opposition, Pawar’s stand raised doubts about the Opposition unity in Maharashtra as well as in the rest of the country.
With Pawar backing Adani, the Opposition unity obviously ran into rough weather and the chances of an alliance against the BJP in the foreseeable future seem bleak. Further, some of the parties like BRS, and Trinamul Congress may unite nationally but may have rivalries with the Congress in their home states. Added to this, there is no common ideological or philosophical thread to bind them. The ruling Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSR CP) in Andhra Pradesh or the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha may not be that keen to fight against the BJP in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections due next year.
Further, there are parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the SP in Uttar Pradesh that may not go together. Another major impediment for the Opposition seems to be the lack of a leader who is acceptable to all. It is significant that last week Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, announced taking responsibility to bring like-minded parties and leaders on a common platform to take on the BJP for the coming Lok Sabha polls. The various political parties and actors, national and regional, with their respective egos and ambitions, if at all, can reach any kind of understanding on seat sharing, it is a must for each of them to address a fundamental task— how to ensure 2024 Lok Sabha electoral battle is fought on a level playing field.
*Senior journalist
