Jairam Ramesh told why this is necessary

The Congress on Saturday (March 18, 2023) once again insisted on the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) in the matter related to Adani Group. The Congress asked what is the guarantee that the report of the expert committee set up to probe the episode would not meet the same fate as the reports of some earlier committees.

Party General Secretary Jairam Ramesh questions Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of the series ‘Hum Adani Ke Hain Koun’. The Congress has been continuously attacking the Adani group and the Prime Minister since the report of the American agency Hindenburg Research came out. Hindenburg Research had made several allegations against the Adani group, including fraudulent transactions and manipulation of share prices.

Adani Group had termed these allegations as false and said that it has followed all the laws and provisions. Congress general secretary Ramesh said, “Investigations conducted by SEBI and other investigative agencies are not within the formal jurisdiction of the expert committee. It does not have the power to summon, compel evidence or cross-examine witnesses. Also the statements made before this committee will not amount to strong evidence in the court of law.”

He said, “We would like to remind you that the then Chief Justice N. V. Ramanna made some comments on August 25, 2022 regarding the committee probing the illegal use of Pegasus. Given this, is it not clear that a JPC with appropriate powers is the only way to conduct a comprehensive probe into the Adani scam?”

He questioned, “Even after limited powers, the report of the expert committee should not meet the same fate as some previous reports. The Pegasus report is yet to come out, though it was supposed to be submitted in July 2022.” Ramesh also asked, “What is the guarantee that this will not happen in the Adani case? Keeping all these relevant aspects in view, is it not necessary that the JPC should investigate the matter?”