Fact-Checking Rahul Gandhi’s Allegations

The job of an editor these days also involves fact-checking. Since so much misinformation and distorted facts exist, setting the correct editorial agenda means examining a narrative in vogue and sifting fact from fiction. In this editorial, this is exactly what I am going to do.

Rahul Gandhi’s political life can be divided into two phases: Rafale (Anil Ambani) Phase and Gautam Adani phase. Enough has been said and written on Rahul’s rafale phase. The epitome of that phase was when Rahul Gandhi had to tender an unconditional apology in the Supreme Court for his blatant lies.

His current Gautam Adani phase is still shaping up. But here is my small surgical strike against his allegations.

Allegation: Huge rise in Adani’s wealth under Modi rule

Facts:

Adani’s turnover rose from Rs 2 crore to Rs 87,000 crore under UPA

Allegation: Modi helped Adani in securing foreign contracts

Facts:

Adani got his first foreign contract in 2008 in Indonesia.

He got his first mine in Australia in 2010.

He set up his port in Australia in 2011.

Allegation: SBI and LIC favoured the Adani group

Facts:

Exposure of SBI and LIC to Adani is less than 1%.

Adani has not defaulted on a single loan repayment.

LIC has made huge gains on its Adani investments.

Allegation: Modi gave away six airports to Adani

Facts:

Adani won all airport contracts through the bidding process.

Adani bid many times more than the second-best bidder.

Govt has secured more revenue from Adani airports.

The list of wrongs attributed to Adani by Rahul Gandhi is so long that it might take a book rather than a short editorial to address them.

Gautam Adani has also been accused of India’s slide in the global hunger index and rise in labour suicide rates.

Rahul would be surprised to know that one of the focus areas of work Adani for the past decade has been fighting malnutrition. Through its flagship project, Suposhan, Adani Foundation has been addressing the problems of malnutrition and anaemia among children 0-5 years of age, adolescent girls, pregnant women, lactating mothers and women of reproductive age. The Suposhan project is operational in 1,026 villages and municipal wards across the country and provides services to 2,39,211 households. The project has managed to save 35,000 undernourished children. After the intervention of the Adani foundation, these children are now in a healthy state.

But that’s a discussion for another day.

In this editorial, I would like to stay focused on the more direct allegations.

So what is the truth behind Adani winning six airport bids?

The bidding process was conducted competitively and transparently, in which 32 bids were received from 10 different entities for six airports.

The tenders were awarded to the companies which quoted the highest ‘per passenger fee’. Adani Enterprises was the highest in all the six airports.

In the case of Thiruvananthapuram airport, Adani bid ₹168 per passenger, while KSIDC bid ₹135 & GMR Airports ₹63 per passenger. Can Gandhi please tell us if the Government should have given the tender to GMR? If it had done that, then that would have been crony capitalism.

For Ahmedabad airport, GMR bid ₹85, AMP Capital bid ₹127, Zurich Airport bid ₹146, and Adani bid ₹ 177. Should the govt have given the tender to Zurich Airport & settled for lesser revenue? If it had done that, then that would have been crony capitalism.e

Evidence shows Adani has built his businesses bid-by-bid in an era of transparent, competitive bidding, unlike the Congress Cronies who flourished during the UPA era of arbitrary and first-come-first-served allocations of the country’s resources.

Adani has won contracts in auctions for green energy, airports, city gas distribution & transmission lines. It means cheaper electricity & gas and more revenue for the Govt. During the Congress rule, it was the opposite: loss to the govt & public and profits to cronies.

The journey of Adani is essentially the journey of infrastructure creation in the post-liberalisation era. It is the economic policies of Congress Govts-first Rajiv Gandhi, then Narasimha Rao & finally Manmohan Singh–that enabled Adani to set up a huge infra-business group

From the small beginnings of a small firm in 1988 to the present workforce of 17,000 Adani employees, Adani has come this far by building world-class infrastructure. Can Rahul deny that it was his father who paved the way for entrepreneurship by opening up the economy?

Some of the questions raised in the Hindenburg Report need a regulatory response. SEBI and other authorities need to examine the questions of corporate governance, transparency in corporate holdings and protecting sham shareholders’ investments.

But to reduce these serious questions to an exercise in political mud-slinging is doing a disservice to our country.