Gautam Adani-owned NDTV is facing more public ridicule after it ran an interview with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, who slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for criticising the Adani Group for alleged financial irregularities as highlighted by the Hindenburg report. The person interviewing Pawar was the editor-in-chief of Adani Group-owned AMG Media Network, Sanjay Pugalia. As expected, NDTV threw all its weight behind publicising the interview. However, the controversial media group’s decision to broadcast Pawar’s interview did not go down well with netizens.
In the interview broadcast by Adani-owned NDTV, Pawar said that India’s billionaire businessman was being unfairly targeted in the wake of the report published by Hindenburg.
“Such statements were given by other individuals too earlier and there was a ruckus in parliament for a few days but this time out of proportion importance was given to the issue. The issues that were kept, who kept them, we had never heard of these people who gave the statement, what is the background. When they raise issues that cause a ruckus across the country, the cost is borne by the country’s economy, we cannot disregard these things. It seems this was targeted,” Pawar was quoted by NDTV as saying.
Pawar, according to Adani-owned NDTV, also did not agree with Rahul Gandhi for his criticism of ‘Adani-Ambani’ style of targeting big business houses.
Soon after Adani completed the takeover of NDTV, Pugalia, the man interviewing Pawar, was appointed as a director in the media group.
Reacting to NDTV’s interview of Pawar in support of its owner Adani, TMC MP Mahua Moitra tweeted, “Adani owned channel interviewing Adani’s friends to tell us how he is being targeted. Long live Indian Media – you truly are a rare species!”
NDTV had recently come under sharp attack from Congress leaders for allegedly running a fake story about former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. A report by NDTV had implied a rift between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar over the future chief minister of the state. However, Siddaramaiah took to Twitter to accuse NDTV of running a fake story.
Calling NDTV ‘Adani TV’, the former Karnataka chief minister had written, “News article published by @ndtv (Adani TV), alleging that I had commented about Chief Minister candidate in Karnataka, is far from truth. I never made such comments and will never do such petty politics. I urge
@ndtv to issue clarification and pull down the baseless post.”
News article published by @ndtv (Adani TV), alleging that I had commented about Chief Minister candidate in Karnataka, is far from truth.
I never made such comments and will never do such petty politics.
I urge @ndtv to issue clarification and pull down the baseless post. https://t.co/bgIV3QAxtl
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) April 4, 2023
The Hindenburg report had accused the Adani Group of committing financial frauds. Soon after the report was published, the Adani Group shares faced a bloodbath in the stock market, wiping off billions of dollars from Adani’s fortune. Rahul Gandhi raised the issue in parliament. But his criticism of Adani was expunged to ensure that they don’t form the part of Indian parliament records.
Days later, Gandhi was disqualified from the Indian parliament after a court Gujarat found the Congress leader guilty of defamation for his criticism of Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Both Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi had fled India and are facing allegations of financial frauds.