NEW DELHI: Apprehensions regarding the hidden agenda of the 2023 Ladakh trip of Rahul Gandhi are circulating across social media. Decoding the background of the people whom Rahul Gandhi accompanied in his Ladakh trip raises such serious doubts regarding the true motive of the Ladakh trip, beyond the said rationale, which is apparently understanding the people of Ladakh and reciprocating to their problems.
Rahul Gandhi made his trip to Ladakh in 2023, when the border tensions with China were still stable and no major breakthrough was achieved in terms of disengagement, descalation and anchoring permanent peace and stability. At such a geopolitically sensitive timeline, Rahul Gandhi further went to Pangong Tso from Ladakh, the zone which was epicentre for the 2020 Galwan clash with China.
An even more peculiar aspect is who did Rahul Gandhi take along with him to Pangong Tso, a strategically vital and geopolitically sensitive zone at a time of heightened tensions and uncertainties. His companions in the Ladakh trip and their profile raises serious queries regarding the true agenda of Rahul Gandhi with respect to sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security of India.
The name is Shakir Mohamed Nurali Merali. He is the Managing Partner for an investment firm called Lightrock. This firm leverages the infrastructures created and funded by Soros Economic Development Fund, it is an investment wing of the Open Society Foundations spearheaded by George Soros. The name itself suggests that Soros Foundation has a series of allegations pertaining to anti-India activities threatening the socio-political fabric of the country.
Deciphering the Soros-Pakistan nexus to the Ladakh trip of Rahul Gandhi
The Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF) created Aspada Investment Company as its wing in India. The Open Society Foundation of George Soros completely funded it. However, in 2019, the LGT group purchased the Aspada company from SEDF, apparently only on papers and rebranded it as Lightrock, the company where Shakir Mohamed Nurali Merali works, the companion of Rahul Gandhi during the visit to Pangong Tso. However, even after rebranding, Lightrock was funded by Soros foundation.
As a testament to the fact that Lightrock was funded by Soros even after rebranding, legal documents from 2021 show that Lightrock India and SEDF co-invested together in CapFloat Financial Services. Thus, the institutional relationship or nexus between Lightrock and Soros foundation continues to the day. In this Lightrock investment company, Shakir Mohamed Nurali Merali heads the African investments wing.
Now, let us decipher the background of Shakir Mohamed Nurali Merali. Before joining the Lightrock, Shakir was the Managing Director at the Abraaj Group, founded by a Pakistani businessman in Dubai. This company collapsed in 2018. The Abraaj Group controlled 66.4 per cent K-Electric Company, Pakistan’s largest power utility serving over 20 million people in the region of Karachi.
In 2016, The Abraaj Group sold K-Electric to Shanghai Electric Power, a Chinese state-owned company, for USD 1.77 billion. Thus, the strategic power infrastructure of Pakistan went to the Chinese hand. However, this deal later collapsed due to regulatory hiccups and other geopolitical pressures. The Abraaj Group in fact offered USD 20 million bribery to Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif to push the power deal with China. Shakir Mohamed Nurali Merali, the companion of Rahul Gandhi in Pangong Tso worked in this Pakistan-based company and later shifted to Lightrock, which was funded by George Soros. This exhibits the anti-India elements that Rahul Gandhi beholds in his Yatra to understand India and solve its problems, quite ironically!
Shakir Mohamed Nurali Merali had held the senior positions in Abraaj. The institutional culture he operated within included Chinese state deals, bribes and political money flows. Shakir Mohamed Nurali Merali has invested in Chinese state enterprises. Shakir is also an angel investor in Ilara Health, a Nairobi healthtech startup backed by Chinese Fund ShakaVC. His investments directly overlap with Chinese backed funds and portfolios.
This is the history of Shakir Mohamed Nurali Merali. He has deep alliances with Pakistan based groupings, Chinese investment portfolios and projects and ultimately with George Soros and his foundations. So, the apex question is why did Rahul Gandhi chose the companionship of Shakir Mohamed Nurali Merali for the visit to a strategically sensitive Pangong Tso in the China border, especially at a critical geopolitical juncture, when India-China border tensions still had considerable flares. Didn’t he care about the national security, territorial integrity and sovereignty of India? Or is there some deep nexus and motives behind the screen?
