A day after billionaire George Soros questioned prime minister Narendra Modi’s silence over the Hindenburg report on Adani, the Bharatiya Janata Party took him on and fielded union minister Smriti Irani to counter him. Irani said that the comments are an “attack on India that would not be tolerated”.
Calling him an “economic war criminal” and “a man who broke the Bank of England”, Irani said that Soros has declared his “ill intentions to interfere in the democratic processes of India”, and wants a government who is pliable to his needs.
“That he has announced funding of over a billion dollars, particularly to target leaders like prime minister Modi is significant. I call upon every individual or organisation, societal or political, to denounce the intention of this individual who seeks to demonise our democracy, weaken our democratic interests and who brings an onslaught to the economy of India all so that he can personally gain,” Irani said at a press conference on Friday at the party headquarters.
A day earlier, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, the nonagenarian billionaire said that Modi and business tycoon Adani are “close allies”, and that while Modi is “silent on the subject” now, he will “have to answer questions to foreign investors and in Parliament”.
“This will significantly weaken Modi’s stranglehold on India’s federal government and open the door to push for much needed institutional reforms. I may be naïve, but I expect a democratic revival in India,” Soros said during his speech.
The BJP also questioned the Congress after the party’s Data Analytics head Praveen Chakravarthy tweeted about Soros’s comments. “Praveen Chakravarty who is a close aide of Rahul Gandhi and a topnotch leader of the Congress eco-system and parivaar has tweeted and peddled the agenda of George Soros. This proves that the Congress party is not an innocent bystander but a vector of this propaganda and insidious agenda,” Poonawalla said.
The report of the short seller Hindenburg has turned into a major political controversy in India with Opposition parties demanding an investigation by a joint parliamentary committee on the allegations of the report which points at irregularities in the businesses of Gautam Adani, and into the risks of the financial exposure of institutions like the LIC and SBI.
Irani said that PM Modi has repeatedly said that he can take criticism, but “an attempt on India will not be tolerated”. “War is being mounted against India, and PM Modi is standing between it and the country's interest,” Irani said. “We have defeated foreign powers earlier, too, and we will do so again.”