Allow JPC if you have nothing to hide: Congress to 'scared' BJP on Adani row

Congress Tuesday alleged that a "scared" Narendra Modi government is running away from a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani Group issue and said if it has nothing to hide, such a probe should be allowed.

The remarks came as Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed in an interview that the ruling BJP has nothing to hide or be afraid of in the Adani issue.

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said the government was not just running away but even not allowing a JPC probe into the issue and expunging every reference to Adani in Parliament.

"If there is nothing to hide, why are they running away from a JPC probe? Accept our demand. They do not even allow us to raise the demand of the JPC in Parliament. When our leaders, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge ji, raised the demand for JPC, their remarks were expunged," Ramesh told a press conference.

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If the government is ready to accept a Supreme Court proposal to set up a panel of experts, he said, why can't the government agree to a JPC probe? "The probe has to be against Adani and not Hindenburg Research, which came out with the report. The probe has to be about the relations of Adani and Modi and how in ten years, the conglomerate has managed to grow like this," he said.

At the same time, he said, Congress wanted to make it clear that it was not against private investments, entrepreneurship and liberalisation of the economy. "But we are against mindless privatisation when public sector units, which are in profit, are sold out," he said, adding their fight is against crony capitalism and they will not be cowed down and will continue to fight.

He alleged that one company has benefited from the government in the past 8-9 years and only one company has got the benefits of the privatisation drive.

Asked whether Rahul Gandhi will apologise over his remarks on Modi and Adani in Parliament following the initiation of breach of privilege proceedings, Ramesh answered in the negative and said he has not done anything wrong. He claimed that the expunctions of Rahul's and Mallikarjun Kharge's remarks were expunged from Parliament records without following rules.

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"This was an unprecedented action. We never expected this. It is our duty to raise questions and Rahul, Kharge and Digvijaya Singh among others only raised questions. Is raising questions a violation of rules and procedures?" he said.

Referring to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar's comment that Parliament is supreme, Ramesh said, "if Parliament is so supreme, why is he not announcing a probe by a parliamentary panel, which is the JPC."

When asked if the BJP would have a majority in a JPC and if would it help, Ramesh referred to earlier experiences and said maximum tough questions came from Opposition MPs in the JPC on the Harshad Mehta scam and others, including from members like Jaswant Singh and S Jaipal Reddy among others. "These proceedings were part of the official procedures," he said.