India’s BJP slams Soros for saying Adani crisis will weaken Modi
Al JazeeraThe financier-philanthropist has predicted the Adani Group’s woes would loosen the Hindu nationalist leader’s grip on power. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party has accused billionaire financier-philanthropist George Soros of trying to undermine India’s democracy by predicting that the Adani Group’s woes would loosen the Hindu nationalist leader’s grip on power. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Thursday, 92-year-old Soros said “Modi and business tycoon Adani are close allies; their fate is intertwined” and the conglomerate’s troubles would “significantly weaken Modi’s stranglehold on India’s federal government” and “open the door to push for much needed institutional reforms”, the Financial Times reported. “India has always defeated foreign powers whenever it was challenged and will continue to defeat them in the future too.” Modi has not referred to Adani by name since the crisis triggered by the Hindenburg report, but last week he told parliament that the “blessings of 1.4 billion people in the country are my protective cover and you can’t destroy it with lies and abuses”, as opposition legislators chanted “Adani, Adani”. Meanwhile, the Indian government has told the country’s top court that “truthfulness” of allegations made by Hindenburg, the United States-based short seller, against the Adani Group should be looked into by a panel proposed to examine investor protection, according to a government document seen by the Reuters news agency.