On February 7 the vice chairman of the conglomerate organisation GVK GV Sanjay Reddy refuted the allegations made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi stated that the government has tweaked rules in the favour of Adani Group and the provision prohibiting the participation of those lacking in it airport development was repealed.
According to Reddy, the Mumbai Airport Deal was executed without any pressure from Adani Group.
As per a report in Business Today, Reddy said that the company was looking at fundraising. because in our airport holding company, the debt was raised nearly 10 years ago when they acquired Bengaluru airport and that debt was becoming due.
Gautam Adani approached him and he said that he has a lot of interest in Mumbai airport and whether they are willing to do a transaction with him at the same terms and conditions – the only difference being that he said he would ensure that he will conclude the entire transaction in one month.
Before Gautam Adani was approached the company was already engaging with other investors who agreed to deal with the company. However, they had certain conditions.
The pandemic (COVID-19) appeared on the scene and revenue was null. This exerted financial pressure on the company. It was only at that time that the Gautam Adani approached to deal with the GVK.
On February 7 Rahul Gandhi led the opposition attack on the ongoing friction between the Adani Group and Hindenburg in the Lok Sabha He stated that Narendra Modi’s election was to blame for Gautam Adani Meteoric rise.
He claimed that after 2014, a “magic” actually happened that spurred the businessman from 609th to second place on the world’s wealthiest list. “The relationship between the two began many years ago when Narendra Modi Ji was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. And when most of India’s business was asking questions to the Prime Minister, one man stood shoulder to shoulder with him.
Concerning the specific claim made by Gandhi in the Parliament that GVK was coerced into selling Mumbai Airport to the Adani Group, Reddy said that the deal was executed because GVK was in need of the deal. “The company had to repay lenders and there was no pressure from anybody else at all.
Reddy also praised Gautam Adani and said that he deals directly without anyone’s assistance. He added that the deal was straight forward and time specific.
In the parliament, Rahul Gandhi said that the Centre changed a few rules and developmental projects of six airports were given to the Adani Group. He asserted that the Adani Group received wind farms contracts in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as a part of foreign policy to expand Adani’s Empire.
Additionally, Rahul Gandhi also mentioned a report by Hindenburg Research linking the Adani Group’s use of shell companies in Mauritius to national security and asked how much Adani had invested in the BJP in bonds as he wrapped off his speech.
