I have never met Adani, says MK Stalin raising pitch for JPC probe

Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin denied having ever met Gautam Adani, the Indian industrialist who is facing the music in an US court over bribery charges, and challenged the PMK and the BJP to support the appointment of a joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the Adani controversy.

Replying to PMK leader G K Mani, who raised a question in the State Assembly on Tuesday with regard to the alleged meeting of the Chief Minister with the Gujarti industrialist, Stalin accused the PMK and BJP of spreading misinformation and launching a smear campaign though State Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji had already explained it fully.

Refuting the charge of the BJP and PMK, whose leaders had also taken to social media to made the allegation that Stalin had links with the Adani group of companies, Stalin asked Mani if and his party were ready to support the JPC probe that the Congress and other opposition parties in Parliament had been demanding.

Ever since Adani and a few of his company officials had been indicted in the US for paying bribes, the demand for the JPC probe had been raised in Parliament and the Union Government had come under attack for being a supporter of the tainted Adani group.

When Mani raised the issue in the Assembly on Tuesday, Speaker M Appavu declined to allow it initially since that matter was already in Parliament. But with the PMK member insisting that the Chief Minister should clarify his position on it since the indictment of Adani was a matter of great concern, he allowed it.

Stalin, in his reply, said that Mani and other leaders of the PMK had been making the allegations outside the House, too, and that he had expected Mani to spell out everything about the controversy in the Assembly, which he did not probably because he had come to know of the truth behind it.

Making it clear that he had never seen or met Gautam Adani and that he was not in touch with him in any manner, the Chief Minister wanted to know what further explanation that the PMK floor leader wanted from him.

He said that he wanted to know from those who had been trying to tarnish the image of the State government by spreading false information through rumours on the Adani Group’s investments in the State if they were prepared to discuss the matter in Parliament and also support the setting up of the JPC inquiry demanded by the INDIA block.

Without taking up the challenge, PMK members walked out of the House, saying that they were not satisfied with the Chief Minister’s reply.