Criticising the Congress for taking a hypocritical stand over Adani Group BRS working president KT Rama Rao today alleged that the Rs 100 crore worth donation from industrialist Gautam Adani towards setting up a skill university in Telangana, was actually a pay-off ahead of the public hearing for the Ambuja Cement plant coming up at Nalgonda. The allegation was raised by the BRS ahead of Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the state tomorrow. Gandhi will be in the city prior to the official flag off for the caste census across the state.

In reply to a post by Jairam Ramesh on the social media platform ‘X’ KT Rama Rao today wrote, “Then why is your Congress Chief Minister supporting Ambuja cement plant of Adani Group much against the wishes of the people of Ramannapet in Nalgonda district? Why this hypocrisy? Chief Minister accepts Rs100 crore donation a few days before the public hearing for cement plant and hopes no one is watching! So ‘Modani’ is not okay but ‘RaDani’ is?” Through his reference to ‘Radani’ Rao attempted to drag in Rahul Gandhi who is a vocal critic of the Prime Minister’s alleged proximity to the Adani Group. This is not the first time that BRS has alleged an unholy nexus between the Adani group and chief minister Revanth Reddy who has met Gautam Adani several times in less than a year over investments.

Advertisement

Recently, Jairam Ramesh, the Rajya Sabha MP from the Congress had criticised the Modi government over the rising monopoly of five conglomerates including the Adani Group which he alleged was monopolizing the cement sector. In a lengthy post he wrote “As former RBI deputy governor and noted financial economist Dr Viral Acharya established 5 big conglomerates – including the Adani Group – are building monopolies in 40 sectors, including cement. This growing monopolization is linked to India’s shaky economic growth, unemployment crisis, and high inflation. In 2015, when a common man used to spend Rs 100 on goods, Rs 18 would go as profit to the business owner – in 2021, the owner now gets Rs36 in profits.”