While Rahul Gandhi and Congress have been using Adani as a stick to beat the Modi government and project them as guilty of cronyism, the history of the Adani Group’s first infrastructure project in Mundra in Gujarat will leave both the grand old party and the Gandhi scion in shock and perhaps stupefaction.
Even though the Gandhi scion keeps alleging that Modi is working at the behest of a few businessmen, with Adani being among them, the facts of the matter, especially in the rise of the Adani Group and its Mundra Port business, do not jibe with the allegations levelled by the former Wayanad MP.
Nevertheless, the attack against the Centre concerning Adani had intensified in the last few weeks, especially in the wake of the Hindenburg Report on Adani, which alleged that the group had indulged in stock manipulation and fraud to inflate its valuation. The attack escalated following the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from Lok Sabha after a Surat Court convicted and sentenced him to 2 years of imprisonment for his racist remarks against a particular community. Gandhi had alleged that he was disqualified from the parliament because he dared to speak up on the supposed ties between PM Modi and Adani.
However, it is worth noting that it was not PM Modi or the BJP government that bestowed on Adani his first piece of land for the Mundra Port project. It was under the Chimanbhai Patel-led Congress government in 1993 that granted land at 10 paise per sq meter to Adani for his Mundra Port project.
Gautam Adani, the head of the Adani Group, has denied receiving any special favours from Narendra Modi during his reign as Prime Minister and his earlier stint as Gujarat CM. According to him, the Adani Group, which is valued at $8.7 billion and operates in ports and energy, started purchasing land near the coastal town of Mundra in Gujarat as early as 1993. However, it is worth noting that only 5,315 acres of the total 15,946-acre land bank were acquired during Modi’s tenure as Chief Minister.
Congress government led by Chimanbhai Patel granted the first piece of land to Adani for 10 paise per sq meter
In his interview published in 2014, Adani asserted that no farmland was utilised for the construction of the Mundra port. Only barren and desert-like land, he said, was selected for the development of infrastructure projects in Kutch at a time no one thought of investing in the region.
Adani utilised the land to construct India’s largest port, which handled a record-breaking 100 million tons of cargo in FY 2013-14, and the nation’s largest privately-owned coal power station. He stated that his group did not acquire the land at lower prices to sell it for a profit.
However, what’s fascinating is the price at which Adani secured vast tracts of land for building the Mundra Port. Gautam Adani received the land for Mundra Port in 4 parts, starting with the Chimanbhai Patel-led Congress government in Gujarat in March 1993. The Congress government had then granted Adani the land at a throwaway price of just 10 paise per square meter. He subsequently received additional plots of land under Shankersinh Vaghela in 1997, BJP governments led by Keshubhai Patel in 1995 and Narendra Modi in 2005.
“When we began acquiring land at Mundra in 1993, (Chief Minister) Chimanbhai Patel charged us 10 paise per square meter. (BJP government led by) Keshubhai Patel (in 1995) charged us Re 1 per sq mt and Shankersinh Vaghela (led Rashtriya Janata Party) in 1996-07, charged Rs 1.5 per sq mt. Under Mr Modi, we got some 5,000 acres of land at an average of Rs 15 per sq mt rate,” he had said.
Modi assumed the position of Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001, and in 2006, during the tenure of the UPA government’s SEZ policy, Adani acquired his first piece of land under his leadership to establish a special economic zone (SEZ). Although the initial request was for 10,000 acres, Adani was only granted 5,000 acres.
Rahul Gandhi has long claimed that the land allotted to Adani was equivalent to Vadodara’s size, but the reality is starkly different than what the Gandhi scion would have us believe. The Adani Group had acquired 7,350 hectares of land, whereas Vadodara city has an area of 15,900 hectares.