In a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Thursday, billionaire philanthropist George Soros said the turmoil at Gautam Adani's business empire may weaken Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hold on the government.
His nearly 42-minute speech covered climate change, the Russia-Ukraine war, rumblings in the US, the Turkey earthquake and China. On the subject of India, Soros claimed that "Modi and business tycoon Adani are close allies; their fate is intertwined" and "Adani is accused of stock manipulation, and his stock collapsed like a house of cards." "Modi is silent on the subject, but he will have to answer questions from foreign investors and in Parliament," he said.
"This will significantly weaken Modi's stranglehold on India's federal government and open the door to push for much needed institutional reforms," he said. "I may be naïve, but I expect a democratic revival in India."
Kanchan Gupta, a senior adviser to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, said the "face behind repeated 'regime change' attempts in India with collaborators paid by The Open Society Foundations stands exposed." "India's enemies are many: George Soros leads the pack. Democracy in India is strong and resilient. 2024 is not too far away, and Soros will eat crow again," Gupta tweeted.
Gupta said the Munich Security Conference (MSS) was a platform for discussing global security challenges and seeking paths to peace and stability, not conflict. "Soros being given a platform to share his subversive 'regime change' agenda to undermine India tells a different story about MSS," he said.
In his speech, Soros spoke about repressive states and distinguished between open and closed societies. "India is an interesting case. It's a democracy, but its leader Narendra Modi is no democrat," he claimed. Modi, he said, maintains close relations with both open and closed societies.
"India is a member of the Quad (which also includes Australia, the US, and Japan), but it buys a lot of Russian oil at a steep discount and makes a lot of money on it," he said before turning to Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. "Erdogan has much in common with Modi," he said. "But, while Modi seemed to be firmly in the saddle until recently, Erdogan has mismanaged the Turkish economy and will face elections in May. All his efforts are focused on winning the elections."
"Turning to China, Xi Jinping would be an obvious loser. His close association with Putin would hurt him. But China may be already undergoing a revolution," he said, adding Xi's Zero Covid policy was his biggest blunder. He said democracy isn't functioning "very well" in the US.