"Method to blackmail India": Senior journalist RN Bhaskar on Adani indictment

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 22 (ANI): Amid the row surrounding the alleged bribery charges against industrialist Gautam Adani and other executives by the United States, researcher and senior journalist RN Bhaskar has claimed that this whole episode is a ploy to "blackmail India."

Speaking to ANI on Friday, Bhaskar alleged that whenever the US wants to replace a leader in a country, it creates public agitation by creating an "excuse" and later saying that the leader was replaced through "public will."

"You realise that this could be a method to blackmail India... But there's a third dimension that you must be looking at. And the third dimension is that whenever the US wants to replace a leader in a country, it uses an excuse to create a public agitation and then gets a leader replaced by saying, it's a public will. We had nothing to do with it," he said.

Bhaskar backed his claims using two instances where he said that the US had "weaponised" international financial transactions during the Iran crisis and the other when Russian Foreign  Minister Sergey Lavrov publicly admitted that the "US is in the business of blackmailing."

He said that for an international transfer of money, one needs to convert its currency to dollars and then transfer it, which in turn gives the US the knowledge of every transaction that takes place in the world, as the currency needs to go to a US bank to get converted to dollars.

"You have to go back to the time when the Iran crisis took place, when America sanctioned Iran. That was the time when America had weaponised financial transactions…Let's say I'm in India, I've got rupees which I want to send to you in Iran at Tomar's when I want to send it to your currency, I have to first convert it to dollars and from dollars it has converted to your currency. In other words, because it goes to a dollar and goes to American banks, America has a knowledge of every transaction that takes place in the world…So effectively, America knows every transaction in the world," he stated.

"If you take the talk of Lavrov, Lavrov only said two things. He said the US is in the business of blackmailing…America tells them we know you have a bank account with this bank. These are the details. We know your son or your daughter is studying at this university in America. You know, effectively, we can break you and leak out this information anytime. And Lavrov said it at a public conference," he said.

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Meanwhile, renowned criminal lawyer Advocate Vijay Aggarwal compared the whole episode with two — coal scam and the ongoing row with Canada, stating that nothing had happened in any of the cases.

"In Indian context, compare it with the coal scam cases. Various chargesheets were filed, and we all know that one was against the former Prime Minister, who was holding the portfolio of Minister of Coal also. What has happened? Nothing. The case has not proceeded. Also, compare it with what is happening in Canada... Has anything happened? No, nothing has happened. It is only the charges levied; it is only the indictment. So, the potency of the same would depend upon the evidence that they have," he said.

"As of now, I see it as just one more case. No repercussions here in India. No repercussions in business or otherwise. No repercussion as a person. A person is presumed to be innocent till found guilty," Agarwal added.

This comes after US prosecutors charged Gautam Adani and others in an alleged Solar Energy contract bribery case. A five-count criminal indictment has been unsealed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, charging prominent Indian executives, including Chairman of the Adani Group Gautam Adani, by linking them to an alleged bribery and fraud scheme.

Notably, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday charged Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global Ltd., for conduct arising out of an alleged bribery scheme.

The Adani Group has denied the allegations made by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green Energy. (ANI)