Allegations against Adani group point finger at Centre: TN CM

Chennai: The allegations against the Adani group are direct accusations against the BJP government and hence a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe should be ordered by the Centre and the matter must be debated in Parliament, DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said here on Tuesday.

The questions posed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Parliament on the issue are pertinent and it is shocking that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not even utter a word as his answer, he said.

Answering questions in his 'Ungalil Oruvan' (One among you) series, Stalin said expunction of parts of remarks made by Gandhi and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge in the Parliament went against the traditions of Parliamentary democracy.

Expunging remarks made in Parliament cannot erase the matter from the people's hearts, he said.

The allegations against the Adani group are direct accusations against the BJP regime and hence a JPC probe should be ordered by the government and the matter must be debated in Parliament.

The Supreme Court is itself looking into the matter related to the Adani group, the CM said.

On the Prime Minister's speech in Parliament, the DMK president said that he understood the way to "speak hours together without answering anyone's question." Various allegations are being made against the BJP government and Modi. However, the Prime Minister did not answer any of them. People did not say that they are Modi's shield, but it was the Prime Minister who was claiming it.

On Modi's remark that mud-slinging would help lotus grow, he said the PM's address was about jugglery of words and had no explanation on either the BBC documentary or the row involving the Adani group. Modi did not list the promises fulfilled.

Also, there was no reply to questions posed by DMK MPs including those on Sethusamudram Ship Canal project and Governor's interference. "In particular, the Prime Minister did not have anything to say in respect of Tamil Nadu." To a question on Modi 'asking' why the DMK has ties with the Congress as it had dismissed its previous government, Stalin wondered as to how Modi could pose this question considering the BJP's present alliance with AIADMK, which toppled its government at the Centre in 1999.

Asked if Modi's remark --that the Enforcement Directorate has brought opposition together-- meant 'healthy politics,' he said: "This is the Prime Minister's confession statement on the purpose for which the ED is being used." For the first time, a PM has accepted in the Parliament that he was carrying on a vendetta against Opposition parties. "This is not good for country, not good for autonomous institutions, not good for democracy as well," Stalin said.