Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s credibility into serious question, asking why he was protecting Gautam Adani despite telltale evidence of wrongdoing.

This appeared to be a counter to Modi’s attempts to portray the Opposition INDIA bloc as corrupt while presenting himself as the guarantee against corruption, as electioneering for the crucial Assembly elections intensifies.

The Congress leader expressed bewilderment, asking what was so special
about Adani that the Prime Minister felt compelled to protect him by blocking investigations even as “his own credibility was on the line”.

Referring to the report on “Adani and the mysterious coal price rises” in the Financial Times newspaper, Rahul said at a media conference: “The Adani group is stealing money from the people of India because the Prime Minister facilitated the theft and protected him from the investigating agencies. The evidence available would have pulled down any government in the world. But in India, the media doesn’t ask any questions.”

He continued: “Adani buys coal from Indonesia. The price of the coal doubles when it reaches India. Adani makes an additional Rs 12,000 crore through this over-invoicing. I had asked about Rs 20,000 crore earlier. I asked, whose money is this? Now we find that the figure was wrong; Rs 12,000 crore is added to that amount. The total now is Rs 32,000 crore and could go up more as new revelations may come.”

Repeatedly pointing to media apathy towards the alleged corruption, Rahul said: “When you switch on the fan or a tubelight, as soon as you push the button, money is transferred into Adani’s pocket. And who is facilitating this transfer? The Prime Minister of India. Who is protecting Adani? The Prime Minister. We are giving subsidy on electricity bills in our states. Now we discover the electricity cost is rising because of Adani. He is inflating the price of coal to steal money from the people and that is not possible without the protection given by the Prime Minister.”

Arguing that some countries had initiated probes, Rahul said there was no investigation in India.

“A blank cheque has been given to Adani. Whatever he wants is given to him — electricity, ports, airports, agriculture… and he enjoys immunity from investigating agencies. But everybody in India knows Adani has violated laws, stolen money. Even villagers know.”

Replying to a question about his persistent grilling of the Prime Minister and whether he had ever asked NCP leader and ally Sharad Pawar about his meetings with Adani, Rahul said: “I have not asked Sharad Pawar. He is not the Prime Minister. Pawar is not protecting Adani. Modi is, and that is why I ask Modi this question and not Pawar. If Pawar was... the Prime Minister of India, and if he was protecting Adani, then I would be asking him that question.”

The Congress has asked over a hundred questions regarding the Adani affair but Modi hasn’t answered even one.