Panel under Centre's terms will 'avert real probe’ in Adani case: Jairam Ramesh

The setting up of a committee under the ‘terms of reference’ by the central government can ‘hardly carry any insignia or reassurance of independence or transparency’, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said on the Supreme Court's direction on February 13 to create a committee to examine the allegations charged by the US short-seller Hindenburg Research against the Adani Group. The Congress MP said it will prevent any ‘real investigation into the Adani Group’s relationship with the ruling regime'.

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“Where the allegations are close, intertwined proximity between the ruling dispensation, the government of India and the Adani Group, the setting up of a committee with terms of reference proposed by the Government of India can hardly carry any insignia or reassurance of independence or transparency," Ramesh said in a statement.

On February 13, the apex court accepted the suggested the formation of an expert-level panel to examine the Hindenburg-Adani matter, which the Centre agreed and said that it will suggest names of experts for the committee.

"We will suggest names of the experts to be included in the committee in a sealed cover. Some names may appeal to the Supreme Court, and some may not. But these names should not be discussed and opposed by the petitioners. The SC can choose from the list," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, said in front of the SC bench.

Ramesh cited news reports and said that Mehta's suggestion to give names in a sealed cover ‘supports’ that the proposed committee ‘is part of a carefully orchestrated exercise to prevent any real investigation into the Adani Group’s relationship with the ruling regime'.

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The Congress MP further pointed out the significance of probing the matter by the elected officials accountable to the public. “An evaluation of the regulatory and statutory regime by experts is in no manner equivalent to an investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC)," he added.

He further recalled the role of JPCs in examine important matters in the past including the stock market scam in 2001 and how the reports placed by these committees ‘prevented manipulative practices’.

“If the Prime Minister and government are to be held accountable, any committee other than a JPC will be nothing but an exercise in legitimisation and exoneration,” he added.