Ambani, Adani Nail In Protesters’ Eye

  • 20-Jan-2021
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Two of India’s richest men have landed in an unlikely controversy over farming laws, becoming targets of protesters who allege the tycoons have benefited from their close links to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

For weeks, tens of thousands of farmers have camped outside the nation’s capital, demanding the withdrawal of recently passed legislation they say, without evidence, was designed to allow billionaires such as Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani to enter farming. The tycoons say they have no such interest. More than 1,500 phone towers of Ambani’s wireless carrier were vandalized last month and some farmers called for a boycott of their businesses.

The fight between the government and the farmers has revived the debate on what Modi’s critics call cozy nexus between the magnates and the popular leader — accusations they all have denied. The protests, one of Modi’s toughest political challenges yet, follow an eventful 2020 when the combined fortunes of Ambani and Adani swelled by almost $41 billion, even as millions of Indians lost their jobs to the pandemic that pummeled the $2.9 trillion economy.

“Everyone loves to hate the rich in times of economic stress,” said Sanjiv Bhasin, a director at investment management firm IIFL Securities Ltd. in Mumbai. “People are venting out their anger at social disparity. It is indeed a new business risk to these large conglomerates. But all the noise will settle when the economy starts growing.

Highlighting the disparity, an Oxfam report in January 2020 said India’s richest 1% hold over four times the wealth of 953 million people who make up the poorest 70% of the country’s population. The wealth of the nation’s top nine billionaires is equivalent to the wealth of the bottom 50% of the population, according to the non-profit body that works against inequality.

‘Suit-Boot’
The new farm legislation, passed in September, will allow private companies to buy produce directly from farmers, moving from the decades-old system of state-run wholesale buyers and markets that guaranteed a minimum support price.

Farmers, mostly from the northern state of Punjab, fear that the removal of state support will make them vulnerable to market-driven price fluctuations despite government assurances that a safety net of minimum support prices will continue. About 800 million of the country’s over 1.3 billion people depend directly or indirectly on agriculture, giving the group political clout.

Modi, who won a second consecutive five-year term in 2019 with an even bigger majority, has tweeted several times to allay concerns, saying the new laws will cut out middlemen, make farmers more prosperous and India self-reliant.

Still, Modi risks letting this political headache snowball into a serious threat. After calling his administration years back as a “suit-boot ki sarkar” — meaning a government that favors the business elite over the poor — opposition parties are seizing the opportunity to hit out at him.

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