Report: India's Modi Allowed ‘Inappropriate’ Adani Coal Deals

Facts

• According to an investigation conducted by the nonprofit The Reporters Collective and published by Al Jazeera on Wednesday, Indian PM Narendra Modi’s admin. granted favor to Adani Enterprises Ltd. to mine from a block holding more than 450M tons of coal, despite ruling that giving coal blocks to the private sector was 'inappropriate.'¹
• The report alleges that the government didn't explain why it made an exception for Adani, which has reportedly allowed it to mine over 80M tons of coal, while others were excluded.²
• Before Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rose to power, the previous Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance government was mired in corruption scandals, including the distribution of coal blocks to private miners. Modi then campaigned on fighting that corruption.²
• In 2014, the Supreme Court canceled all 204 coal mining licenses, allowing the new Modi admin. to introduce a new law that it said would see coal blocks auctioned to the highest bidders.³
• Critics, however, say that Modi passed the law, known as the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, with a specific loophole to allow it to make discretionary allocations.⁴
• This report echoes previous allegations of favoritism toward the conglomerate's owner, Gautam Adani, who in recent months has also been accused of fraud by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research. Supporters of Modi have denied that the prime minister has shown unfair preference to Adani.⁵

Sources: ¹The wire, ²Al Jazeera (a), ³Al Jazeera (b), ⁴Theprint and ⁵Ft.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by The hindu. The Modi government turned a blind eye to corruption and enabled India’s richest man to exploit loopholes. Modi was warned numerous times about potential corruption and chose not to investigate private companies exploiting his coal mining auction law. Modi does whatever he can to enrich his wealthy friends, and he must answer for his actions.
• Narrative B, as provided by Opindia. While the opposition tries to smear the BJP with baseless claims, many of its own leaders continue to be under severe scrutiny for their coal scams. Just recently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the homes of several opposition Congress leaders for their connections to both money laundering and coal mining scams in the state of Chhattisgarh.