Trinamool Congress attacked the government over a loan sanctioned to Adani Group by State Bank of India
The Trinamool Congress today attacked the government in Parliament over a mega loan sanctioned to the Adani Group by India's largest public sector bank during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Australia visit earlier this month, which it said smacked of "crony capitalism."
The trading and infrastructure conglomerate signed a memorandum of understanding to line up a loan of up to $1 billion from the State Bank of India for the Carmichael mine in Queensland, which it aims to build by the end of 2017.
"When you are going to do an MoU, and going to get a bank loan of Rs 5,000-6,000 crore... you have a breakfast meeting with the SBI Chairman, the Prime Minister and a third person... it gives a bad impression," Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien said in the Rajya Sabha, without naming Adani Group Chairman and founder Gautam Adani,
who was part of the business delegation that accompanied PM Modi to Brisbane for G20 summit.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu hit back, calling the reference to the PM "highly objectionable".
"The honorable MP has the right to raise the issue, question intention of bank, that is upto the concerned authority to respond but the MP has taken the name of the PM. It is highly objectionable," Mr Naidu said.
"Adani is not Quattrocchi," he added, referring to the controversial Italian businessman linked to the Gandhis.
The Trinamool alleged that five leading global banks - Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Barclays - had declined to fund the Queensland project, citing decline in coal mining in Australia, a slump in coal prices and environmental issues. "What prompted SBI to lend" to Adani when global banks had declined to do so, Mr O'Brien asked.