Attacking Adani-Ambani Not Right: Sharad Pawar To NDTV

Attacking industrialists like Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani to score political points was "not right", veteran Maharashtra politician Sharad Pawar, one of the tallest opposition leaders, said on Friday, in a message that appeared to be aimed at his allies like the Congress.

In an exclusive interview with NDTV, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief, said Indian political parties have a long history of targeting the private sector, but the phenomenon needed to change.

"This has 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," Mr Pawar said.

"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.

"The question is that the people you are targeting, if they 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.

"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 added.

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

Mr Pawar also said that 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.

Coming out strongly in support of the Adani Group and criticised the narrative around Hindenburg's report on the conglomerate, he said, "Perhaps someone would have wanted the issue to fester for two to four months, but the truth would never have come out."