Billionaire philanthropist George Soros believes the turmoil at Gautam Adani's business empire may weaken Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hold on the government. Soros, in a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Thursday, February 17, said that PM Modi would "have to answer questions" from foreign investors and Parliament on allegations that the Adani group is facing. The Adani Group has been under severe pressure since the US short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of accounting fraud and stock manipulation.
While listed companies of the group lost over USD 125 billion in market value in three weeks, opposition parties inside and outside Parliament attacked the BJP government for the meteoric rise of the ports-to-energy conglomerate. Stocks of most group firms have risen in the last couple of days. Soros, in his speech, said the turmoil at Adani may open the door to a democratic revival in the country. His near 42-minute speech oscillated between climate change, Russia-Ukraine war, rumbling in the US, Turkey disaster and failures in China.
"PM Modi and business tycoon Adani are close allies; their fate is intertwined," he alleged. "Adani is accused of stock manipulation and his stock collapsed like a house of cards. PM Modi is silent on the subject, but he will have to answer questions from foreign investors and in Parliament." He added, "This will significantly weaken Modi's stranglehold on India's federal government and open the door to push for much needed institutional reforms. I may be naive, but I expect a democratic revival in India."
His speech drew sharp reactions. The ruling BJP alleged that Soros targeted Indian democracy. "Everyone should condemn his remarks in one voice," Union Minister Smriti Irani said. She alleged that Soros wanted to destroy Indian democracy and wanted some "hand-picked" people to run the government here. She also alleged that he created a fund of over $1 billion to intervene in democratic systems.
Soros started his speech at the conference by talking about the current state of affairs and finding a way to distinguish what is important from what is less so. "Let me start with a bold assertion. While two systems of governance are engaged in a fight for global domination, our civilization is in danger of collapsing because of the inexorable advance of climate change.
"This is a very succinct statement, but I believe it provides an accurate summary of the current state of affairs," he said, devoting a good deal of his speech on climate change.
He then stated that as the founder of Open Society Foundation, he considers open societies "morally superior" to closed ones. He then spoke about repressive states and the difference between ‘open’ and ‘closed’ societies. "India is an interesting case. It's a democracy, but its leader Narendra Modi is no democrat," he claimed.
"India is a member of the Quad (which also includes Australia, the US, and Japan), but it buys a lot of Russian oil at a steep discount and makes a lot of money on it," he said before turning to Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. "Erdogan has much in common with PM Modi," he said. "But, while Modi seemed to be firmly in the saddle until recently, Erdogan has mismanaged the Turkish economy and will face elections in May. All his efforts are focused on winning the elections," he alleged.
He then made the comments on Modi and his links with Adani before moving on to other countries like Brazil, Russia and its conflict with Ukraine, US president Joe Biden's role in the war and finally to China.
"To conclude, I want to repeat what I said at the beginning: while open and closed societies are in a fight for global domination our civilization is in danger of collapsing because of the inexorable advance of climate change. I believe this sums up the current state of affairs accurately," he added.