Can India’s Opposition corner government on Adani issue?

Imagine if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were the principal opposition party in Parliament, and a scandal on the scale of that involving the Adani group broke — would political affairs be conducted as it is taking place now?

Flashback to a decade back, to the events that unfolded towards the end of the second Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The agitation against corruption, led by social activist Anna Hazare and which took place in Delhi, was amplified by the media. The agitation saw participants from across the political spectrum, and this led to the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in November 2012. That said, it was the BJP (and eventually then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi) that reaped its benefits at the national stage.

As the principal opposition party during the UPA decade (2004-2014), the BJP benefitted from the Anna movement, and, on its own, never missed an opportunity to attack the ruling UPA, both inside and outside Parliament.

Tough Questions?

In the penultimate year of the second Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, allegations of what could be a mega scam have been levelled against Gautam Adani, a businessman closely associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But, where are the protests or the extensive media coverage? Sections of the media are reluctant to ask the government or the ruling party tough questions — like, shouldn’t there be a criminal inquiry into the alleged offshore accounts through which stock markets were manipulated, leading to huge losses for investors and Indian public sector giants such as the LIC and the SBI? On the converse, debates are held to suggest that an attack on the Adani group is an attack on India.

The current focus on Adani and his group of companies is because of a report published by forensic financial research Hindenburg Research on January 24. The impact the report created in the stock markets, in addition to international news outlets covering it, made it difficult for sections of the media to overlook it.

Demand For JPC

Under such circumstances, how can the Opposition create pressure on the government or the ruling party? Like the media, the circumstances of the Opposition too have changed. Opposition parties currently survive under a constant shadow of the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax raids, even as data shows that the BJP gets the lion’s share of political funding in India. Opposition-ruled states complain of their federal rights being curtailed. Therefore, the Opposition’s powers are not what they were when the BJP was the principal opponent of the UPA regime.

To its credit, the Opposition has flagged the Adani issue, but it has so far been a comparatively routine mobilisation. It has yet to become an issue in the larger public consciousness as the Bofors scandal had become a few decades back.

The current Opposition has demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) headed by a Supreme Court judge to probe the allegations of fraud and stock manipulation by the Adani group. It’s worth noting that since 2014, no JPC has been set up, although demands were raised for parliamentary probes into demonetisation and the Rafale deal. Given this, we can safely surmise that the Modi-led government will not agree to set a JPC — and the Opposition knows this. The best it can hope for is that the government agree to a separate debate in Parliament on the Adani issue.

As the Budget Session of Parliament is taking place, various views have been offered in joint Opposition meets. Some parties such as AAP are in favour of not participating in any debate and protesting inside and outside the House unless the government agrees to a separate debate. Others, such as Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress would like to raise the issue during the debate on the President’s Address.

The Congress, the principal opposition party in the Rajya Sabha, announced on February 5 that it would ask the Prime Minister three questions each day on the Adani issue. It also held what it called nation-wide protests on February 6. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the Prime Minister of trying to stall a discussion on Adani group in Parliament.

The Congress has acquired a certain momentum after its Bharat Jodo Yatra, and could run with this issue, should it choose to put the same energy into creating awareness about the scale of the alleged wrongdoing by a businessman considered close to the Prime Minister.

(Saba Naqvi is a journalist and author.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.