The last two years have been the toughest years in history. The world was devastated by the deadly Corona pandemic and the people had died in clusters. While people around the world were struggling to save their lives, a small group was competing to find a place in the list of the world’s richest elite. Adani was the foremost among them. At that time, his daily income was ₹1,002 crore.
Being born into an ordinary textile business family, how could he earn this much? How did he manage to reach the third spot in the world’s rich list? The only reason is the Modi-Adani alliance. Adani’s businesses and assets began to grow only after Modi became the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Adani’s many business expansions and industrial developments were shown as Modi’s Gujarat model.
During the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, it was Adani who supported and defended Modi. Some leaders of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) had criticised Modi for the riots. Adani, who had opposed it from within the group, had publicly threatened to leave the federation for Modi’s sake. The Modi-Adani alliance was so strong at that time.
Adani is not only close to Modi but also to his ideological leadership, the RSS. Sudheesh Minni, the author of the book “Cellars of the Inferno: Confessions of an RSS Pracharak”, has exposed Adani’s presence at the shakhas and important meetings held at the Nagpur office, the headquarters of the RSS, as a testimony to the Adani-saffron nexus.
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In 2003, Adani had announced that he would invest ₹15,000 crore at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit of investors. Modi had acquired 15,946 acres of land at a throwaway price of ₹1-32 per square metre for the Mundra port maintained by Adani and the proposed Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project. Adani gave the land to the state-run public sector company Indian Oil for ₹600 per square metre.
The Gujarat government itself bought natural gas in the open market and sold it to Adani at a lower price; When Adani did not supply electricity to the Gujarat Electricity Board as per the contract, the government collected only a minimum penalty; The irregularities committed by the Modi-Adani alliance in the sale of shares of Mundra port to Adani at throwaway prices are incalculable. Adani, who looted crores of people’s money through these scams, entered into subsequent businesses and joined the list of the elite.
In 2009, he started 11 companies for separate businesses. In 2012, he stepped into solar power generation. In the financial year 2012-2013, the annual income of the Adani Group increased to ₹47,352 crore. However, in 2000, the total budget of the Adani Group stood only at ₹3,300 crore.
Adani, whose looting was centred in Gujarat till 2013, began expanding across India when Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014. Modi flew in Adani’s own aircraft for the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign. As Modi flew in Adani’s plane, shares of Adani’s companies soared. Shares of Adani’s three companies grew nearly 85.35 per cent.
After winning the election and Modi became Prime Minister, the Adani Group began to grow at a lightning pace. It further expanded its business by buying the enterprises of others in bulk. On the day, when the results of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections were declared, Dhamra port was acquired from L&T and Tata Steel for ₹5,500 crore. He purchased a 1,200 MW thermal power plant in the next three months and a 600 MW thermal power plant in the next three months.
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If buying others’ businesses is one way, then another means is to expand one’s business in areas where one has no prior experience. Adani Group, which has nothing to do with the aviation industry, was awarded the contract to operate six airports in February 2019. For this purpose, the Adani Group has created a separate company called Adani Airport Holdings Limited. It has also entered the telecom sector with the acquisition of 5G spectrum.
As a result, the Adani Group has grown into India’s leading company in sectors such as commercial coal mining, ports, electricity, fuel production and distribution. Adani Group is pouncing into other fields too. Through this, it is expanding its influence in other countries as well.
Soon after Modi became the Prime Minister of India, he began to lay the groundwork for Adani’s international plunder. Modi himself went directly to Australia and bargained for the coal mine for Adani. Modi also provided him ₹6,500 crore from the SBI for this. Not only this, bank loans have been at the heart of the overall growth of the Adani Group. In particular, thousands of crores of rupees paid through public sector banks and written off as bad loans within a specified period of time amassed a huge capital for corporates like Adani-Ambani. The basis for this is that the government’s aim is to create Adanis by looting the tax money and bank savings of crores of working people as its primary task. The name they have given to this plundering is ‘Development of the Nation’.
Like the Australia mining deal, Modi negotiated and concluded the Sri Lankan 500-megawatt wind power project in favour of Adani. “The President (Gotabaya Rajapaksa) summoned me after a meeting and said, India’s Prime Minister Modi is pressuring him to hand over the project to the Adani group”, said Ferdinando, who was the then chairman of Sri Lanka’s electricity board.
If one method is to start power plants in one country and generate electricity and supply electricity to the government of that country, then another method of the Adani Group is to generate electricity in one country and supply power to another country. The Adani Group is following the second line of power supply to Bangladesh and the European Union countries.
The Kota Thermal Power Plant in Jharkhand is producing 1,600 MW of electricity; this is being sent to Bangladesh from December 2022. The contract for the same was signed with the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) in 2017 itself. The agreement was finalised through a meeting with Adani by the Bangladeshi Prime Minister, who visited India in September 2022.
Like the governments here, the Bangladesh government also buys electricity from Adani at a higher price. The BPDB agreed to pay 3.26 Bangladeshi taka (₹2.72) per kilowatt hour as capacity charge, which is higher than any other power plant in Bangladesh.
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Similarly, the Adani Group has said that it will produce electricity and emission-free fuel (green hydrogen) in Morocco and supply it to the European Union. The project, which supplies 10 GW of electricity, is the largest power generation project outside India.
The Adani Group aims to become the world’s largest producer by investing $50 billion in green hydrogen production within the next decade. For this, it has partnered with France’s TotalEnergies.
Apart from coal mining, power generation and distribution, Adani Port is also taking over cargo ports in other countries too. In 2017, the Adani Group was involved in the construction of a green field container port at Carey Island of Malaysia; this would be an extension of the existing Port Klang.
Similarly, in July 2022, the Adani Group captured the port of Haifa, a major trading hub on Israel’s Mediterranean coast. It took over the port in alliance with Gadot, a local chemical and logistics conglomerate. Israel is largely dependent on sea route to import and export goods to their country. It should be noted that the port of Haifa itself handles almost half of the container shipping for Israel.
While the acquisition of the port by the Adani Group is significant on that basis, it is more important that the Adani Group aims to facilitate trade routes between India, Europe and the Middle East through the port. What’s more is that the Adani Group is focused on creating an integrated global transport through its ports in Carey Island in Malaysia, Haifa in Israel and ports in India.
Since 2014, the Adani Group has not only expanded its plundering across India, but has also been expanding its plundering in many countries of the world. There have also been mass protests against Adani’s plundering in Australia and Sri Lanka. At the same time, protests are taking place in various parts of India, including Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, against the plundering of the Adani Group and the destruction of the environment it causes. In Kerala, the people there are now actively protesting against Adani’s Vizhinjam port.
With the help of Modi, who has been deceiving people in the name of development and progress and turning the country into a hunting ground for corporate dacoits, Adani is expanding his destructive plunder not only in India but also in many other countries. In this aspect, Adani is not just an enemy of the Indian proletariat, but of the world proletariat. It is, therefore, necessary for the Indian proletariat to unite with the world proletariat in the struggle to bring down Adani. It is also our obligation to smash the Modi-Adani alliance.
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