Adani Saga: Modi takes ‘Kaka Hathrisi’ defence; expunged record singes Congress
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, February 8: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took shelter in satirist Kaka Hathrisi to wriggle out of the Adani Saga. Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had built a case of the bond of Modi and Gautam Adani to link to the meteoric rise of the business conglomerate since 2014 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power.
“aaga peecha dekhkar kyon hote gamgeen, jaisi jiski bhavna waisa dekhe scene (why are you concerned looking around, you see what is in your heart),” said Modi, with his trademark full-palm shown to the Opposition benches. His one-line sentence was in response to Gandhi’s long list of accusations, which included several questions, including how Adani became the second richest person in a short span of time.
Gandhi’s speech was fully centred on the alleged closeness of Adani with Modi. But later Congress communication department chief Jairam Ramesh shared the communication of the Lok Sabha secretariat which stated that all the references which were made on the alleged Modi-Adani relations were expunged from the records of the House. “Eighteen remarks by Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha have been expunged; every question asked by Gandhi has bene deleted; all references to relationship between Adani and Modi before 2014 have been deleted; (allegations on) misuse of agencies and foreign trips (were) deleted,” stated Ramesh in a tweet.
In his reply to the debate on the motion of thanks to President’s address to the joint session of Parliament, Modi stuck to his repeated themes that the Opposition has been disrespectful to tribal community. Modi also hit out at Congress, reminding that Harvard University had commissioned a study on “The rise and decline of Congress”. Modi also read out a couplet of Hindi poet Dushyant Kumar “tumhare paan ke neeche zameen nahin; kamaal ye hai ki tumhe phir bhi yakeen nahi (There is no ground under your feet; yet the irony is that you don’t believe this)”.
With Modi giving an account of achievements of his government, which were part of the speech of President to the joint session of Parliament, Opposition charged that the prime minister ducked all the tough questions asked by them on the Adani Saga. “The speech of Modi was good, but he didn’t answer any of the questions asked by the Opposition,” said Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.
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