EDITORIAL: India’s billionaire Gautam Adani and his conglomerate Adani Group were able to recover from the USD 100 billion market cap loss after US short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of fraud and market manipulation in 2023.
Yet the latest scandal to hit them – criminal indictment by American prosecutors, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and DOJ (Department of Justice) – for alleged bribery and fraud threatens to deliver the kiss of death to his businesses and professional reputation and send shockwaves through the Indian financial system.
Adani lays claim to the biggest infrastructure empire in the world’s fastest growing emerging market, after all, and the prompt cancellation of the Adani Green Energy dollar bond following the indictment means it will now be impossible for the Group to raise money in global capital markets.
It’s also no surprise that the international financial media is already questioning if Adani’s troubles will not spread like cancer in India’s over-valued market and trigger an untimely exodus of foreign portfolio investment.
Adani is also very close to India’s PM, which is why it is only natural for critics to wonder whether the United States’ sudden criminal proceedings against him are meant to poison the warm working relationship between Narendra Modi and Donald Trump this close to the transition in the White House.
American authorities knew about Adani Group’s excesses for years, yet they chose to act at this precise moment, raising questions that nobody is willing to answer right now.
Recent developments seem to suggest that western countries, especially the US and Canada, are realising that their expectations of India were somewhat misplaced. They’ve propped up New Delhi to counter China’s rising influence as part of America’s famous Pivot to Asia policy, but they are now finding out that no government in Delhi, whether BJP or Congress, will go to the extent of compromising their national interests to play second fiddle in superpower cold wars.
That also explains why American and Canadian governments made such public spectacles of Indian intelligence’s involvement in a high-profile murder in one country and an assassination attempt in another over the last few months.
This does not mean what India, its Secret Service, and its premier business tycoon are accused of is not true. Pakistan can testify better than most countries just how much India is used to bending and breaking international laws to muscle its way around, especially in Asia. It’s also no secret that India’s intelligence services regularly overplay their hand, and often enough get caught in the process.
And everybody knows that some of India’s most prominent and richest businessmen come from questionable backgrounds.
Yet none of this ever stopped Washington from embracing “the world’s largest democracy” so long as its own purposes were served.
To turn the tables now, when there is friction on some important matters, especially India’s deepening commercial engagement with Russia and non-dollar oil trade just when Nato wants to make a decisive push in the Ukraine war, reeks of western double standards and hypocrisy that is on open display on a number of fronts.
Whether it is containing China, confronting Russia, or supporting Israel’s genocide, the American establishment has no qualms about pursuing its own selfish interests and punishing countries that do not play along.
Whether things will change in Trump’s second term remains to be seen. But few people are optimistic, given what they saw the first time he was in office.
It’s unfortunate that the world’s sole superpower has decided to play the bully, triggering conflicts and deepening cleavages, instead of using its influence to bring the world together. Its frustrations with India only provide further proof, if any were still needed, that even its friends and allies are increasingly uncomfortable with it.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024