When Narendra Modi took office, he flew from Gujarat to New Delhi in Adani’s private jet. This public display of friendship symbolised their concurrent rise to power in a new world where the common people are at the mercy of divisive politics and plutocratic policies. Across the nation, several airports, coal power production, gas distribution, renewable energy, private ports, built with public funds have been given to Adani enterprises for peanuts in the name of privatisation. Being friends with the prime minister and sponsoring his electoral campaigns has increased his net worth by 230%. Not only the BJP, Adani also has opposition parties like Trinamool Congress, CPI(M) and Congress at his disposal. The ports at Vizhinjam in Kerala, Tajpur in West Bengal, coal mines at Silger in Chhattisgarh and Deocha Pachami in West Bengal are being given to Adani. Like major political parties, Adani also has almost the entire Indian media at his disposal. Adani is not answerable to anyone, and has made his way in the business world without regard for regulations.
In August 2022, Fitch released a report detailing the towering debts on Adani enterprises and the risk of its collapse. The debts exceed ₹2.25 trillion. In the recent Hindenburg report, we see that Adani has been involved in stock manipulation, accounting fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion using foreign shell companies. Using these, Adani enterprises inflated it’s stock valuation much above reality. They took massive loans on this inflated evaluation and expanded heavily. The reports also reveal many foreign debts and investments in the enterprise. The fortunes Adani makes from looting the Indian people flow into these foreign investors, while the debts continue to remain a liability making recovery impossible when the company goes bankrupt. Much of the loans were guaranteed by State Bank of India and some PSUs like LIC have invested in the company. Essentially the Adanis have managed to develop a bubble that will potentially wreck the Indian economy and banks when it bursts.
After the uncovering of one of the largest corporate scams in the country, the regulatory bodies of the government such as SEBI and RBI are suspiciously quiet. It is not surprising that no investigations are underway. Given the government’s past records with Adani, and other big corporate conglomerates, it appears as though Adani might get away with it once again. The Adani group has constantly filed legal suits against journalists and activists. Paranjoy Guha Thakutra was issued arrest warrant for reporting on allegations against Adani for tax evasion. In 2021, a youtuber who made critical videos of Adani was sent out a court gag order. After the research was published, most media houses reported on it through carefully worded news articles.
With the Indian media, major political parties, administration, governments at the mercy of him, Adani is leading the national role in the imperialist plunder of Indian people and resources.
