Opposition part of conspiracy to cause financial instability in India: BJP

The BJP on Sunday (August 11) accused the Congress and other Opposition parties of being part of a conspiracy to create financial instability and chaos in India.

The ruling party has rejected Hindenburg's charge against the SEBI chairperson as an attempt to discredit the financial watchdog.

BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said the short-selling firm, which last year levelled serious allegations against the Adani group, is facing scrutiny from Indian probe agencies. Opposition parties are echoing its allegation, and the conspiracy is now clearly visible that they want to create chaos and instability, especially in the financial sector, he told PTI.

Noting that many such critical reports emanating from foreign soil are released just ahead of or during Parliament sessions, he said Opposition leaders were aware that the report was coming when Parliament was scheduled to meet.

The Monsoon session of Parliament was scheduled to end on Monday but was cut short by one working day and got over on Friday.

Obvious partnership

BJP leader and former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the short-selling firm has clearly attacked market regulator SEBI in an "obvious partnership" with the Congress and has a ominous motive and goal.

It is to destabilise and discredit one of the world's strongest financial systems and create chaos in the world's fastest growing economy, he said on X.

He said he has read the report which, he claimed, is a classic "Congress style innuendo and lies glued together", aimed at discrediting the regulator and causing chaos and losses in markets for investors to slow down bullish sentiments.

He alleged, "I have said often and say again, many global forces with help of Congress dynasty want to slow down or trip up India's rise. We won't let them."

Hindenburg allegations

The Hindenburg Research on Saturday launched a broadside against market regulator SEBI chairperson Madhabi Buch, alleging she and her husband had stakes in obscure offshore funds used in the Adani money siphoning scandal.

In a blogpost, Hindenburg said 18 months since its damning report on Adani, "SEBI has shown a surprising lack of interest in Adani's alleged undisclosed web of Mauritius and offshore shell entities." The SEBI chairperson and her husband have rejected the allegations levelled against them as baseless and asserted that their finances are an open book.

The Congress on Sunday said the government must act immediately to eliminate all conflicts of interest in the regulator's investigation of the Adani Group and reiterated its demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the matter.

The Opposition party also said the "seeming complicity of the highest officials of the land" can only be resolved by setting up a JPC to investigate the full scope of the "scam". 

(With inputs from agencies)