Adani issue: Opposition leaders protest in Parliament House, demand JPC probe

File Photo/PTI

Several opposition party leaders on Tuesday held a protest in the corridors of Parliament House and raised slogans demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani issue.

They also hung a banner that read "We want JPC" from the first floor of the Parliament building.

TMC MPs held a separate protest in the Parliament complex and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi break his silence on the Adani issue.

Accusing the government of helping businessman Gautam Adani by not ordering a probe into allegations of fraud levelled against his group, the party demanded that Adani be arrested.

"Adani should be arrested. Modi is trying to protect Adani in the Rs 1 lakh crore scam. This is also the reason why they are not allowing any discussion in Parliament. The TMC leadership has already demanded that the 10 non-BJP states should begin their own probe into this and ensure that public money is not misused," said TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien.

TMC Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay demanded an explanation from the prime minister on how public money was used by Adani. "PM Modi should explain this in the House. How LIC-SBI money ended up with Adani," he said.

Leaders of opposition parties had earlier met in the Parliament complex and decided to press for a JPC probe into the Adani issue.

Leaders of opposition parties, including the Congress, DMK, RJD, CPI-M, CPI, NCP, Shiv Sena (UBT), JDU, JMM, IUML, AAP, MDMK, attended the meeting in the chamber of Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge.

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Both houses of Parliament were adjourned till 2 pm Tuesday amid uproar over the Adani issue and demand by ruling party members that Rahul Gandhi apologise for his democracy remarks.

"This morning Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, @kharge ji was given permission by the Chairman to speak. He got up to do so but was not allowed by sloganeering BJP MPs. Chairman then adjourned RS. How can the logjam be broken if Modi Govt behaves like this," AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter after the House was adjourned.

The opposition parties have been demanding a JPC probe into the Adani Group issue, saying only a JPC can bring out the truth in the matter, after US based Hindenburg Research report made allegations of financial irregularities and stock manipulation by the Adani Group.

The Adani group has denied the allegations and said no wrongdoing has been done by it.

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