A plea was filed in a Delhi court on Monday seeking to restrain Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi from making false, fabricated and misleading remarks against the Adani Group and its chairman Gautam Adani. The plea, filed by one Surjit Singh Yadav, who claims to be a farmer and a stock market investor, sought a permanent injuntion against the two senior leaders over their statements.
As per the plea, statements by political leaders like Modi and Gandhi falsely accusing the promoter of the Adani Group without any basis, cause unanticipated volatility in Adani Group stocks, resulting in huge losses to to investors such as the petitioner.
In his plea, Yadav cites news items aired on TV channels and seen on social media in which Rahul Gandhi states that the Centre waived loans worth Rs 16 lakh crore for a few industrialists, including Gautam Adani. According to the plea, the petitioner found out that no such loan waivers were made, and hence, such news was false and misleading.
“The speech delivered by Rahul Gandhi was grossly misleading and delivered to create confusion in the minds of readers/viewers so that the image of the Adani Group of companies could be downgraded in the eyes of the general public and investors,” the petition said, adding that a negative campaign against industrialists causes volatility in the stock market and huge losses to investors.
The plea also refers to a campaign speech made by PM Modi in Karimganj, Telangana, accusing the Congress of allegedly receiving bribes by “Ambani-Adani” and implying illicit transfer of money to the party by the top industrialists. The PM made the remarks while questioning Rahul Gandhi’s silence on “Adani-Ambani”, a line of attack frequently used by the Congress scion to attack the Modi government during its second term.