BJP Defence of Modi's Hate Speeches 'Not Tenable' Says Election Commission; Adani Accused of 'Fraud' in Sale of Coal to PSU

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Snapshot of the day

May 22, 2024

Siddharth Varadarajan

The Election Commission has filed a counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court questioning the need to disclose voter turnout data in any form other than as a percentage, and called the demand that it do so ‘mischievous”. The matter will be heard on May 24.

The Adani group – Narendra Modi’s favourite business house – purchased multiple consignments of low-grade coal from Indonesia and sold them to a public sector power company in Tamil Nadu in fulfilment of a contract for high-grade coal, which is more expensive, Dan McCrum, Chris Cook and John Reed report in the Financial Times, citing documents secured by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The dubious transactions date back to 2014. In every case, the shipments were duly processed by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Company, also known as Tangedco, which also tested and certified the coal as ‘high grade’ even though the Indonesian company, Jnonlin, from which Adani sourced the coal has never supplied any customer coal of that quality.

If the allegations are proven, this would amount to Adani defrauding the exchequer, presumably in collusion with Tangedco officials. Apart from the fact that public money was lost due to Adani’s inflated coal sales, the use of low-grade coal also has