A day after senior NCP leader Sharad Pawar said he does not agree with the Congress party’s strategy of attacking industrialists like Adani, Congress leaders have launched a direct attack on the veteran leader. Today Congress leader Alka Lamba accused Sharad Pawar of collusion with Gautam Adani, calling him scared and greedy.
The Delhi Congress leader tweeted in Hindi: ‘today scared – greedy people are singing the praises of dictatorial power because of their personal interests – only one Rahul Gandhi is fighting the battle of the people of the country – against the capitalist thieves and the watchman who saves the thieves.’
Alka Lamba also posted a photograph showing Sharad Pawar and Gautam Adani sitting together on the balcony of a house. The photograph is from 2014, where Sharad Pawar had met Adani in Adani’s bungalow in Rajasthan’s Mount Abu. Pawar had stayed at Adani’s house for three days, holding “secret parleys”, which had created massive speculations in media and political circles. The meeting had also caused embarrassment for the Congress party, as it was the alliance partner of NCP and had been attacking Adani.
The photograph taken from a distance was published by UK based Daily Mail in July 2014.
The comments by Alka Lamba came in response to Sharad Pawar’s snub at Congress yesterday in an interview with NDT, saying that he felt the Adani Group has been targeted.
“Such statements were given by other individuals too earlier and there was a ruckus in parliament for a few days but this time out proportion importance was given to the issue. The issues that were kept, who kept them, we had never heard of these people who gave the statement, what is the background. When they raise issues that cause a ruckus across the country, the cost is borne by the country’s economy, we cannot disregard these things. It seems this was targeted,” Pawar told NDTV journalist Sanjay Pugalia in the interview.
“An individual industrial group of the country was targeted, that is what it seems. If they have done anything wrong, there should be an inquiry,” he had added.
Sharad Pawar also questioned the demand for JPC probe into allegations against Adani group, saying that the probe by Supreme Court’s committee is more reliable. “If a parliamentary committee is appointed, then monitoring is with the ruling party. The demand was against the ruling party, and if the committee appointed for an inquiry has a ruling party majority, then how will the truth comes out is a valid concern. If the Supreme Court, who no one can influence, if they were to conduct the inquiry, then there was a better chance of the truth coming to light. So, after the Supreme Court announced an inquiry, there was no significance of a JPC Probe. It was not needed,” Pawar said.