New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday came heavily at the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi, calling him a “repeat offender” and that the party had given Vizhinjam Port to Adani Group “on a platter.”
Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, the finance minister said, “If Cong leader Rahul Gandhi thinks Adani has been given "all these things", it's not true.”
“It was the Congress government in Kerala which gave on a platter Vizhinjam port to Adani; it was not given on the basis of any tender,” she added.
Sitharaman alleged that “If any crony capitalism is happening, it is happening in Congress-led governments, and Rahul Gandhi will not speak a word about it..."
Launching an attack on Rahul Gandhi, the BJP leader said he is becoming a “repeat offender” in terms of making baseless allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sitharaman’s remark came moments after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge trained guns against the Centre for not constituting a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe on the Adani issue.
The allegations of irregularities by US short-seller Hindenburg Research against the Adani Group remain central to the first and the second leg of Parliament’s Budget Session as Opposition stalled proceedings of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha demanding a JPC probe over the issue.
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"Something is fishy that is why the government is not agreeing to order a JPC probe into the Adani issue," Kharge said in a press conference.
"We are demanding the JPC probe into the Adani issue, but why is the government afraid when it will have a majority in the panel," Kharge said, adding "Modi government talks a lot about democracy but does not walk the talk."
The Congress president also alleged that the ruling party demanding an apology from Rahul Gandhi over his speech in London was done by the government to "divert attention" on the Adani issue.