Congress, AAP accuse Modi of favouritism over SBI loan to Adani

Adani Group’s plans for forays in Australia’s mining sector with help from the State Bank of India raised political dust with the AAP and the Congress accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of extending favours to friends who had funded his election campaign.

Two days after the Aam Aadmi Party questioned the SBI’s one billion dollar loan to the Adani Group, the Congress latched on to the issue and accused the Modi government of siphoning off tax-payers’ money and doling it out to friends in the corporate world.

“What was the compelling need for the SBI to extend a billion dollar loan to Adani at a time when five leading banks have rejected his proposal,” AICC General Secretary Ajay Maken said here.

He claimed undue favours were being extended to the Prime Minister’s friends who had funded his election campaign.

He claimed that five international banks – Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Barclays had termed Adani’s Carmichael Mining project as financially unviable.

“It is surprising that an Indian public sector bank had gone ahead and funded an ‘unviable’ project with public money,” Maken said.

On Tuesday, AAP had demanded that the Reserve Bank of India probe the Memorandum of Understanding inked between Adani Group and the SBI.

“Can the Finance Ministry deny that the SBI has been pressurised to bail out the Adani Group in a difficult venture the returns of which are uncertain?” the AAP had said in a statement.