Gautam Adani made attempts to reach out to Rahul Gandhi during UPA era, says new book

New Delhi: Gautam Adani had attempted to reach out to Rahul Gandhi as early as during the UPA era through leaders like Ahmed Patel and Kamal Nath but they could not persuade the top Congress leader to meet the business magnate, a new book says.

On his party, the book says, Adani was “convinced” that Rahul was surrounded by a group of Leftist advisors who had “poisoned the Congress leader’s mind against him and were using him as a “pawn” in the political battle against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to 2024: The Election That Surprised India by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, Adani had tried to reach out to Rahul during UPA era through a range of contacts, starting with the Congress leader’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra, who was invited to Mundra Port facility in Gujarat. 

Adani had played it down saying he invited so many people to see what they have built and Vadra was only one of them. 

“Subsequently, a few attempts at fixing a meeting in Delhi were made, first through Ahmed Patel and later through Kamal Nath, who had never hidden his closeness to Adani and, as commerce minister, was a keen votary of big business,” the book says.

“But neither was able to make any headway when it  came to persuading Rahul Gandhi to even meet the businessman. Sharad Pawar, another leader with whom Adani enjoyed strong personal rapport, was also consulted to explore the possibility of sorting out matters. A cautious Pawar chose to stay away from playing the peacemaker,” it says.

Rahul had targeted the Adani Group and its alleged connections with Modi from the time he was pitchforked into a leadership role ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The book says the Adani-Gandhi tangle dates back to the pre-2014 period when a party colleague gave a “comprehensive briefing” on how Modi and Adani were benefiting each other.

The party leader briefed Rahul on Adani’s “exponential rise” when Modi was Gujarat Chief Minister and how the businessman established Resurgent Group of Gujarat (RGG) as a counter to Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) after it criticised him for the Gujarat riots among other things.

Rahul took Modi travelling in Adani’s planes for 2014 campaigning as an “evidence of cronyism”. A “Gandhi family friend” was quoted in the book as saying that Rahul feels “very strongly” that India is being overrun by crony capitalists.

The book says Adani’s “ire especially directed at Jairam Ramesh…who…was unequivocal in his criticism” of the conglomerate for influencing Rahul. “Rahul is criticising us all the time, but it is actually Jairam who is shaping the agenda against us,” the book quotes Adani as telling a business associate.

“Both Jairam Ramesh and Rahul Gandhi belong to what may be loosely described as the ‘barefoot development’ stream within the Congress. While not exactly against entrepreneurship, this stream of thought prides itself on its grassroots-oriented approach and publicly prefers to stand on the side of renowned Left-leaning economists rather than with corporate industry bodies,” it adds.