Trust Sharad Pawar to often go against the grain and stun his opponents and friends alike. At a time when Rahul Gandhi and the rest of the opposition are crying hoarse over the alleged Modi-Adani nexus and have called for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into allegations against Gautam Adani’s companies, Pawar said it may not be necessary.
The Nationalist Congress Party president on Saturday said he was “not completely opposed to a JPC probe but a Supreme Court committee will be more useful and effective”.
Talking to reporters, Pawar said if a JPC has 21 members, 15 will be from the ruling party and six from the opposition due to numerical strength in Parliament, which will create doubts on the panel. He said the apex court decided to appoint a panel of retired Supreme Court judges with a direction of submitting the report in a specific time period.
“I am not completely opposed to the JPC. There have been JPCs and I have been a chairman of some of the JPCs. The JPC will be constituted on the basis of majority (in Parliament). Instead of a JPC, I am of the opinion the Supreme Court committee is more useful and effective,” Pawar said.
The NCP chief also said he was “not aware of the antecedents of United States-based Hindenburg Research”, which has alleged stock manipulation and accounting fraud in firms belonging to Adani.
Earlier, in an interview to NDTV, Pawar came out in support of the Adani Group and criticised the narrative around Hindenburg Research’s report on the conglomerate.
“Such statements were given by other individuals earlier too and there was a ruckus in Parliament for a few days but this time out-of-proportion importance was given to the issue,” he said.
“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 said.
Also Read: 16-Year-Old Detained For Threatening To Kill Modi, Yogi
