Misadventurism by Crown Prince backfires: Now, Ghulam Nabi exposes 'undesirable businessmen links' of Rahul Gandhi

The vitriolic generated against industry captain Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Narndra Modi has boomeranged on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. 

Former Congress leader and Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad claimed in an interview that Rahul Gandhi goes abroad and meets “undesirable businessmen”. The Congress leader was replying to Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that the leaders who left the Congress recently, including Azad, have ties with the Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani.

Azad, who has also served as the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, told the Malayalam news channel 'Asianet' that the entire Nehru-Gandhi family, including Rahul Gandhi, have associations with businessmen. “The entire family has associations with businessmen, including him [Rahul]. I can give 10 examples of where he would go, even outside the country, to meet people who are undesirable businessmen," Azad asserted.  

"It is a shame. Rahul Gandhi is saying. I never had any association with any businessman. Whereas the entire family [Gandhi] is associated with businessmen, including him," he added.

Rahul Gandhi had tweeted in Hindi, “They hide the truth, that’s why they mislead everyday! The question remains the same- who has Rs 20,000 crore benami money in Adani’s companies?” In this tweet, he named former Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anil Antony, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kiran Kumar Reddy.

So-called opposition unity pooh poohed as Pawar flays targeting Gautam Adani Group

New Delhi 

Day dream, wild goose chase and wishful thiking --- generally end as a cropper. 
NCP chief and considered an important stalwart in 'opposition unity' efforts, Mr Sharad Pawar has distanced himself from the demand of Congress and other parties for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the report by Hindenburg regarding the Adani Group. 

In an interview to a TV channel, Pawar said he did not agree with stalling of Parliament by the Congress-led Opposition on the matter.

"The question is that the people you are targeting, if they (business honchos like Adani and Ambanis) 

have done something wrong, misused their powers, then in a democracy, you have a right to speak against 

them 100 per cent, but to attack without anything meaningful, this I cannot understand," Mr Pawar said.

He said, "These have been happening in this country for many years. I remember many years ago that when we came into politics, if we had to speak against the government, we used to speak against Tata-Birla. When we understood the 

contribution of Tata, we used to wonder why we kept on saying Tata-Birla". 

"But one had to target someone. So, we used to target Tata-Birla. Today, the name of Tata-Birla is not at the 

forefront, different Tata-Birlas have come before the government. So, these days if you have to attack the government, 

the name of Ambani and Adani is taken," he said.

"Today, Ambani has contributed to the petrochemical sector, does the country not need it? In the field of electricity, 

Adani has contributed. Does the country not need electricity? These are people who take up such responsibility 

and work for the name of the country," he said,

"If they have done wrong, you attack, but they have created this infrastructure, to criticise them does not feel right to me," 

Pawar said adding, he did not share the views of his ally Congress on the demand for a Joint Parliamentary 

Committee (JPC) probe on accusations against the Adani Group by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research.

"Perhaps someone would have wanted the issue to fester for two to four months, but the truth would never have 

come out," he sounded critical of the stance taken by Congress and other parties against the Adani group.

"... we had never heard of these people (Hindenburg Research) 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 said in what is seen as a spirited defence of

businessman Gautam Adani.

Of course, the Congress as well as other parties were taken aback by Pawar's remarks.

"But all 20 like-minded Opposition parties including NCP are united and will be together," commented

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh. The Congress, NCP and the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray are in 

an alliance in Maharashtra. NCP and Congress also has some floor coordination and political understanding

at the national level.

But it is also true NCP split from the Congress in 1999 over the issue of foreign origin of former Congress

president Sonia Gandhi. In 1999, Pawar along with P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar had revolted against

Sonia's leadership and split the grand old party.

Sounding embarrassed and uncomfortable at Pawar's remarks, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra sought to 

target the media house for interviewing Pawar and lamented, "Long live Indian Media - you truly are a rare species!".

The BJP leaders has earlier too maintained that it would be difficult for Congress to sustain a campaign

based on unfounded reasons against business tycoon Gautam Adani and BJP and also against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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Now, Sharad Pawar says no need of debate on educational degrees of Netas

New Delhi 

NCP supremo and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar has yet again sprang a surprise and triggered worries in certain quarters in the the opposition camp when he said - “Should anyone’s educational degree be a political issue in the country when we are facing unemployment, law and 

order, and inflation? Today, differences are being created among people in the name of religion and caste. Crops have been destroyed due to unseasonal rains in Maharashtra. Discussions are necessary on these issues,” he said.

The AAP and its chief Arvind Kejriwal have been trying to spark a debate on these trivial issues.

It may be mentioned that the NCP chief had virtually opposed the efforts being made by Congress and some opposition parties to attack industrialist Gautam Adani.

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla tweeted, “Wonder if some leader of Congress, Uddhav Sena or AAP  will now again attack him (Modi) and call him names / abuse him! I sincerely hope they will listen to the Gujarat HC 

and their own ally too!”

NCP chief and considered an important stalwart in 'opposition unity' efforts, Mr Pawar has recently distanced himself from the demand of Congress and other parties for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the report by Hindenburg regarding the Adani Group.

In an interview to a TV channel, Pawar said he did not agree with stalling of Parliament by the Congress-led Opposition on the matter. "The question is that the people you are targeting, if they (business honchos like Adani and Ambanis)

have done something wrong, misused their powers, then in a democracy, you have a right to speak against them 100 per cent, but to attack without anything meaningful, this I cannot understand," Mr Pawar has said.

He also made a spirited defence of the business tycoon and remarked, "Today, Ambani has contributed to the 

petrochemical sector, does the country not need it? In the field of electricity, Adani has contributed. Does the country not need electricity? These are people who take up such responsibility and work for the name of the country," he said,

The BJP leaders had earlier maintained that it would be difficult for Congress to sustain a campaign

based on unfounded reasons against business tycoon Gautam Adani and BJP and also against Prime Minister

Narendra Modi.

The Congress, NCP and the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray are in an alliance in Maharashtra. 

The NCP and the Congress also have some floor coordination and political understanding

at the national level.

But it is also true that the formation of NCP in 1999 was due to the split in the Congress over the issue of foreign 

origin of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi. In 1999, Pawar along with P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar had 

revolted against Sonia's leadership and split the grand old party.

Creditably, Pawar has put onetime little known sleepy hamlet Baramati on Maharashtra's and in later stage 

the country’s political map. His or his party's victory from the constituency remains a foregone conclusion 

though his admirers say Pawar sahib's election campaigning in Baramati is restricted to only one public meeting 

preferably on the last day.

The water management scheme launched by Pawar back in 1970 ensures that the region is least 

affected when the rest of the state often suffers from drought. It’s sheer hard work for the constituency that he could 

even win in 1984 polls as a regional player braving the tidal pro-Congress wave of sympathy for the late Indira 

Gandhi when even other stalwarts like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the late H N Bahuguna were humbled.

It talks of his commitment to Baramati that despite being in the backyards of Pune district, today it’s known also 

for its agri produces like sugarcane, grapes and cotton.

And so much that even politics in the region has now got inter-linked to terminologies like sugar lobby, cotton growers 

etc. It’s these factors; observers say that weighed in his mind when he bargained toughly in 2004 for 

the Agriculture Ministry in Manmohan Singh government.

Sharad Pawar also made headlines when he lost polls for president of the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI).

But he settled the scores soon and single-handedly demolished former president of Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) Jagmohan Dalmiya.

On November 29, 2005 heralding a sweeping winds of change in BCCI, Pawar then chief of Maharashtra cricket 

association outwitted Dalmiya’s rubber stamp candidate Ranbir Singh Mahendra in a keenly contested battle of 

votes by 20 against 11.

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