 "Rahul Gandhi, Rahul, congress leader")
New Delhi: LoP in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi during ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament in New Delhi, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Photo: PTI)
The Congress on Tuesday announced a nationwide protest on August 22 to demand a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into Hindenburg Research’s latest allegations related to what the party has termed the “big Adani scam.” The party will also seek the removal of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairperson.
A meeting of the Congress general secretaries, its state unit chiefs, and state in-charges held in the national capital decided that party workers will protest outside the offices of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) across the country on August 22 to press for the two demands.
The meeting also discussed the party’s preparedness for the forthcoming Assembly elections. Assembly polls are imminent in Jharkhand, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Jammu and Kashmir.
In the context of the Assembly polls, the Congress will organise public mobilisation campaigns to demand a nationwide caste census and adherence to the tenets of the Constitution in letter and spirit. The schedule for the mass mobilisation campaign is in the works, the party said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge chaired the meeting, which 56 of the party’s leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, attended. Gandhi told reporters that he will soon address a press conference on Hindenburg Research’s latest report.
A resolution passed at the meeting said the Congress demands a JPC probe into the Adani “mega scam in which the prime minister is fully involved and in which the financial market regulator has now been found to have been severely compromised.”
In a post on X after the meeting, Kharge said, “The shocking revelations of nexus between Sebi and Adani need a thorough investigation. The money of small investors in the stock market can’t be jeopardised.” “The Modi government must immediately seek the resignation of the Sebi chairperson and constitute a JPC in this regard,” he said.
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said that more questions have emerged about the potential malpractice by Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch. “Regulatory filings from a consulting firm established by her before her appointment as the Sebi chairperson reveal that the firm is registered at the same address as its statutory auditor,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
Ramesh said that while Madhabi has since stepped down as a director of the consulting firm, her husband has been a director since 2019 in that firm. “A firm and its auditor sharing the same address is generally a sign of poor corporate governance,” Ramesh said, pointing out that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) code of ethics requires statutory accountants to avoid bias, conflicts of interest, or undue influence. “Sharing a location suggests such bias,” he said.
Ramesh accused the Sebi chairperson and her husband of having “misled” the public by claiming that the consulting firm “became immediately dormant upon her appointment with Sebi,” which, he said, was not true. “Between 2019 and 2024, the firm earned Rs 3.63 crore in revenue, with most of it generated between 2019 and 2022, when (Madhabi Puri) Buch was a full-time member of Sebi. After her appointment as the Sebi chief in March 2022, the firm earned about Rs 41.75 lakh,” he said, stressing the need for a JPC probe.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has maintained that the Congress’s demand for a JPC probe is a “sham” aimed at “destabilising” India’s economy and its stock market. BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi on Tuesday referred to the reported rise in the value of Rahul Gandhi’s shareholdings, and said his “mohabbat ka dukan” was making a tidy profit as well, while he is making a lot of noise, a reference to the Congress leader’s criticism of the market regulator Sebi over Hindenburg Research’s allegations. Trivedi pointed out that the Congress had previously alleged irregularities in the State Bank of India, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, and Life Insurance Corporation, which have gone on to make record profits. He alleged that the Congress has often stood with foreign companies, citing Union Carbide, Bofors, and AgustaWestland.
In a related development, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who flagged off a ‘Tiranga bike rally’ from Bharat Mandapam, as part of the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign, said in his address that India is developing at a “nuclear speed” but “some people are unable to digest it, they want to bring obstruction and instability” and “take randomly surfaced issues as authentic.”
In a post on X, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said the Centre should have ordered a probe into Hindenburg Research’s allegations against the Sebi chairperson.
Addressing reporters after the party meeting, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal (organisation) said the party has urged the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre to take steps to ensure that targeted attacks on religious minorities and their places of worship in Bangladesh stop and that they are allowed to lead a life of security, dignity, and harmony.
The Congress meeting demanded that the Centre declare the Wayanad landslides a national disaster. On the issue of the Supreme Court’s order on sub-classification of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Venugopal said the party has set up a committee to consult its leadership in different states. While the Congress state units in northern India are opposed to the sub-classification, the party’s Karnataka and Telangana chief ministers have welcomed the SC order.
First Published: Aug 13 2024 | 8:12 PM IST
