Mahesh Jethmalani On Adani US Case

New Delhi: Senior lawyer and former Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Jethmalani said the Congress is “reading too much” into the indictment against the Adani Group in the US for “purely political purposes”. He said the Opposition party must provide credible evidence before demanding a parliamentary probe.

Mr Jethmalani said the US Department of Justice indictment does not have evidence of any act of bribery carried out in India. “All this noise the Congress has made is completely misconceived. What is the evidence which proves that there was any conspiracy to bribe Indian officials to get these solar energy contracts? (there is) nothing in the indictment,” he said.

“Congress party is blindly relying on an indictment against an Indian conglomerate which has undertaken extremely useful businesses in India and abroad. This is not in India’s interest, and to blindly follow a US court indictment which gives no evidence and does not suggest that any of the Adanis or the company which issued the bonds, Adani Green, have done any wrong in India. Congress is reading too much into the indictment for purely political purposes,” Mr Jethmalani said.

The senior lawyer said that he doesn’t know what evidence the judge is the US who issued the indictment acted upon.

Slamming the Congress, he said, “This is a conspiracy to stop India’s growth story. You are repeatedly going after one corporate group, trying to embarrass the Prime Minister… he is an industrialist who has executed many infrastructure projects successfully in India and abroad of which you should be proud.”

“Don’t rush to condemn him blindly following a US indictment. You are behaving like local agents of a foreign power that has an interest in stopping India’s economic growth. Indirectly, you affect retail investors,” he said.

Mr Jethmalani said there is no need for an inquiry by any authority in India or a Joint Parliamentary Committee unless the Congress puts out “credible evidence” in the public domain. “Please put out evidence, you only want to create some kind of noise and disrupt Parliament. This is completely unwarranted.”

Lawyer and BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli told NDTV, “Mr Rahul Gandhi and his family members are facing charges in the National Herald case. The standard line is innocent unless proven guilty. At another level, when India is being celebrated across the globe as a bright spot on the economic side, we need to consider whether comments that come from the political class are broadly trying to shake confidence in India’s story. Over the last two-three days, it’s almost like a celebration. After all, when the economy grows, everyone benefits.”

On the Opposition’s uproar in Parliament, Mr Kohli said, “There is a pattern. Let me pick up the Congress strategy. There was Rafale, then there was Pegasus… disruption of Parliament has become a norm.”

On the Opposition’s uproar in Parliament, Mr Kohli said, “There is a pattern. Let me pick up the Congress strategy. There was Rafale, then there was Pegasus… disruption of Parliament has become a norm. During elections, there would be a political situation where political parties would be entitled to put out their point of view… now we are beyond the election, Parliament has to function… would you like to hold that hostage to their liking or disliking of a particular business group?”