NDIA – JANUARY 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Gautam Adani, chairman and founder of the Adani Group, and other delegates at Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, at Mahatma Mandir Exhibition cum Convention Centre, on January 18, 2019 in Gandhinagar, India.
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India slammed billionaire investor George Soros after he alleged the Adani turmoil will weaken Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s grip on power and lead to a “democratic revival” in the country.
The latest dispute highlights renewed scrutiny on the relationship between India’s leader and business tycoon Gautam Adani, who has lost billions in net worth since a short seller report accused his companies of fraud. The Adani Group has denied those allegations, calling the report a “calculated attack on India.”
Last week, Soros criticized the prime minister saying India was a democracy but Modi “is no democrat.” Over the weekend, India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, told a conference in Sydney that Soros’ comments were typical of a “Euro-Atlantic view” and rejected his accusations.
“There are still people in the world who believe that their definition, their preferences, their views must override everything else,” Jaishankar said.
He added there was “a debate and conversation that we must have on democracy,” including whose values defined a democracy as the world rebalanced and became less Euro-Atlantic.
“He is old, rich, opinionated and dangerous, because what happens is, when such people and such views and such organizations — they actually invest resources in shaping narratives” Jaishankar said in a response to a question about the billionaire’s remarks.
India’s voters will decide “how the country should [be] run,” the foreign minister said.
“It worries us. We are a country that went through colonialism. We know the dangers of what happens when there’s outside interference,” Jaishankar added.
Modi-Adani ‘close allies’
Soros’ criticism focused on the cozy relationship between…
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