Hyderabad: Joining the Congress high command’s call to protest against Industrialist Gautam Adani, Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy called for the removal of the SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch over her alleged involvement with the Adani Group.
Without directly naming them, Reddy accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah of facilitating the looting of the nation’s wealth and placing it in the hands of two individuals—hinting at Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani.
If urged Buch to tender her resignation immediately if the Center failed to remove her.
Addressing the Congress workers and leaders who assembled in front of the Enforcement Directorate’s office near the Telangana Assembly on Thursday, August 22, Revanth Reddy said that “Adani and Pradhani” were looting the people’s wealth, and that BJP has become the ‘biggest threat’ to the country.
He further urged Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief K Chandrashekhar Rao to spell his stand on the INDIA alliance’s demand for a joint parliamentary probe on the alleged “Adani money siphoning scandal” that has rocked the Parliament. Revanth questioned the silence of Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao and BRS working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) on the issue.
In its most recent allegation against the Adani Group, Hindenburg Research, on August 10, accused SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch of having stakes in obscure offshore funds used in the alleged Adani money siphoning scandal which shocked the nation.
Pointing out that since independence till 2014, all the Prime Ministers combined had accumulated a debt of Rs 55,000 crore, Revanth said that since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, he has burdened the people with a debt of Rs 1.15 lakh crore.
It is pertinent to note that the Telangana CM had been maintaining a friendly relationship with the Adani Group since coming to power in the state, despite the party’s stance on the industrialist and his close ties with PM Modi.
CM Revanth met the Adani Group’s chairman Gautam Adani at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos earlier this year.
The Adani Group had announced an investment worth Rs 12,400 crore in Telangana across multiple businesses and exchanged four MOUs with the state government for investments in the state over the next few years.
Revanth attacks BRS
Describing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as a leader who drove the “technological/computer revolution” and one who put the power in the hands of women with reservations in the local bodies, Revanth said that if BRS leaders attempted to touch the Rajiv Gandhi statue installed at the Dr BR Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat, “their backs will be pounded like tamarind.”
“For ten years they never cared to install Telangana Thalli’s statue inside the Secretariat, but are now trying to prove as if they are Telangana Thalli’s true descendants, by questioning a government which was formed just ten months ago,” he said. He declared that the statue would be installed inside the Secretariat on December 9, on the occasion of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s birth anniversary.
On the BRS leaders’ criticism of the Congress government’s farm loan waiver, Revanth said that those who ate the flesh of the people for 10 years like crows and eagles, were holding protests in the name of farmers.
He urged farmers to approach counters set up in district collectorates over any problems they face of the loan waiver. “We are a government which is ready to listen to its people. If you have any problems, meet the collector and the agricultural officials concerned,” said Revanth.
Tearing into the BRS party, Revanth predicted that it wouldn’t even be able to retain 9 MLA seats out of 39 seats in the Assembly.
