Soon after billionaire investor George Soros said that Indian business tycoon Gautam Adani's recent troubles in the stock market would spur 'democratic revival in India' and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will 'have to answer questions', Indian Finance Minister Smriti Irani called upon Indians to unitedly respond to 'foreign powers who try to intervene in India's democratic processes'.
Calling Mr Soros' remark a 'declaration to destroy India's democratic processes', she said Indians have defeated such 'foreign powers' who tried to meddle with our internal affairs earlier as well, and will do so again. "I urge every Indian to give a fitting reply to George Soros," she said.
Launching a scathing attack on George Soros, the Indian Minister said Soros is a designated 'economic war criminal' who has declared his ill-intention towards India. "The man who broke the Bank of England, and is designated by the nation an economic war criminal, has now pronounced his desire to break Indian democracy. George Soros, an international entrepreneur, has declared his ill-intention to intervene in democratic processes of India," Smriti Irani said.
She claimed that such powers try to bring down governments in other countries to ensure 'their hand-picked people' are in power. "It is evident from his statements that he has pronounced funding over one billion dollars particularly to target leaders like PM Modi is significant," she said.
Tellingly, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi questioned why the ruling Bhartiya Junta Party (BJP) was doing an entire press conference on Soros, and took a dig at Finance Minister Smriti Irani by asking if she had any comment on Israel agency's interference in India's electoral process. Chaturvedi was presumably referring to the NSO group's spyware 'Pegasus' which caused a huge political storm in India over allegations of snooping on unsuspecting citizens, journalists, and politicians.
"Who is George Soros and why is BJP's Troll Mantralaya doing an entire press conference dedicated to him? BTW, Mantriji any comment on an Israel agency's interference in India's electoral process? That is a bigger threat to India's democracy," Chaturvedi tweeted.
92-year-old George Soros, while delivering a speech at the 2023 Munich Security Conference on Thursday, predicted that PM Modi will be weakened by the business troubles of Gautam Adani, whose companies faced a massive stock market rout after US-based short seller Hindenburg released a report accusing the Adani group companies of stock manipulation, "opening the door" to a democratic revival in the country.
PM Modi
would "have to answer questions" from foreign investors and
parliament on allegations of fraud and stock manipulation at Mr Adani's
industrial empire, Mr Soros said, noting that PM Modi had been
"silent" on the topic.
"Modi and business tycoon Adani are close allies; their fate is
intertwined," Mr Soros had said, adding that, "Adani Enterprises tried
to raise funds in the stock market, but he failed. Adani is accused of stock
manipulation and his stock collapsed like a house of cards. Modi is silent on
the subject, but he will have to answer questions from foreign investors and in
parliament."
George Soros was quoted by Sunday Times as saying that PM Modi "is no democrat." "Inciting violence against Muslims was an important factor in his meteoric rise," he said, adding that India "buys a lot of Russian oil at a steep discount and makes a lot of money on it."
Hindenburg accused the Adani group of engaging in "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud" over decades.
The Adani group has lost $125 billion in market capitalization since the release of the Hindenburg report on January 24.
Adani, who was the richest man in Asia until his empire's shares tumbled, has been a longtime ally of Modi. The tycoon's wealth has increased since Modi became prime minister in 2014.
