Several Opposition leaders, together with former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, on March 15 attacked the federal government over a media report claiming {that a} key Adani Group investor can also be co-owner with the conglomerate in a defence agency.
Mr. Gandhi requested why India’s nationwide safety is being “compromised” by giving management of strategic defence tools to unknown international entities.
The Congress additionally posed a set of inquiries to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking why he was “sacrificing India’s national security interests for the financial interests” of cronies.
A report in The Indian Express claimed that ELARA India Opportunities Fund (Elara IOF), a enterprise capital fund managed by Elara Capital, is among the prime 4 entities registered in Mauritius that holds shares predominantly in Adani Group corporations. According to the report, data present that together with the Adani Group, it’s a promoter entity in a defence firm, Bengaluru-based Alpha Design Technologies Private Limited.
This defence firm, included in 2003, works intently with ISRO and DRDO and has a ₹590 crore contract with the Union Ministry of Defence in 2020 to improve and digitise the ageing Pechora missile and radar programs, the report mentioned.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra shared screenshots of the report on Twitter.
“The ‘Chhupa Rustom’ category award at the Oscars goes to @DRDO_India and @PIBHomeAffairs. Happy to have unknown foreign funds controlling sensitive defense contracts! Only for their best friend Mr Adani,” she mentioned.
Citing the identical media report, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi mentioned on Twitter, “This is in India’s Defence space, a key investor in Adani Group, Mauritius based Elara IOF, with 96% of its corpus invested in the group till Dec, ’22 is also co-owner in a Defence company, the firm works closely with ISRO & DRDO, both jointly hold over 51% stake. Amazing coincidence!” Several Congress leaders spoke out on the matter with Mr. Gandhi too sharing a screenshot of the report.
“India’s missile and radar upgrade contract is given to a company owned by Adani and a dubious foreign entity called Elara. Who controls Elara? Why is India’s national security being compromised by giving control of strategic defence equipment to unknown foreign entities?” he requested on tweet.
Congress normal secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra additionally hit out on the authorities over the media report in a tweet in Hindi.
“A leading newspaper of the country has revealed the co-ownership of a dubious Mauritius-based company with a firm of Adani Group. This firm of Adani Group has important contracts in ISRO-DRDO and the defense sector,” Priyanka Gandhi mentioned in a tweet in Hindi.
“But the prime minister neither wants a discussion on this in Parliament, nor any investigation. Why?” she mentioned.
Her colleague, celebration normal secretary Jairam Ramesh, posed a set of three inquiries to Adani. A information report, he mentioned, reveals that the Mauritius-based Elara India Opportunities Fund is the co-owner of the Bengaluru-based defence agency Alpha Design Technologies. While Adani Defence Systems and Technologies owns a 26 per cent stake, the Elara fund owns 25.65% instantly and by way of an middleman agency, he claimed.
As of December 2022, he mentioned, the Elara India Opportunities Fund held ₹24,600 crore of fairness, of which an “unusually high 99 percent” — amounting to ₹24,335 crore — was invested in Adani Enterprises, Adani Transmission and Adani Total Gas. Alpha Design builds digital warfare programs, radars, optronics and communications networks for the Indian Armed Forces and ISRO.
“Should an opaque offshore fund, whose ultimate beneficial owners are unknown, be permitted to own a major stake in a sensitive defence firm? If the fund is, as accused, a stock parking entity for Vinod Adani and his associates, should the government not demand total transparency about the origins of its funds?,” Mr. Ramesh requested as a part of the ‘HAHK’ (Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun) sequence.
Alleging that Elara has an affiliation with alleged inventory manipulator Ketan Parekh, the Congress chief requested, “With this record of involvement in nefarious stock market activities, how did Elara get clearance to invest in a firm like Alpha Design Technologies?” “Are you sacrificing India’s national security interests for the financial interests of your cronies.” Opposition events have been persistent in their assault on the federal government. It comes weeks after Adani Group shares took a beating on the bourses in the wake of US-based quick vendor Hindenburg Research making a litany of allegations, together with fraudulent transactions and share-price manipulation, on the conglomerate.
The Adani Group has dismissed the fees as lies, saying it complies with all legal guidelines and disclosure necessities.
