Adani row: Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, New Delhi on Tuesday, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh responded to Home Minister Amit Shah's remarks that there is nothing to hide for BJP on Adani row.
Ramesh said, "If they do not have anything to hide, why are they running away from a Joint Parliamentary Committee (probe)."
"They do not even allow us to raise the demand of the JPC in Parliament. When our leaders, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge ji, raised the demand for JPC, their remarks were expunged," Ramesh said.
If there is nothing to hide, the government should allow a JPC, he stressed.
Ramesh said he has written to RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das and SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch for an impartial probe into the Adani issue.
The Congress' attack on the government came hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah's interview to a news agency in which he claiimed that there is nothing for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to hide or be afraid of in the matter.
His remarks came a day after the Centre agreed to the Supreme Court's proposal to set up a panel of experts to look into strengthening the regulatory mechanisms for the stock market in the wake of the recent Adani group shares crash triggered by Hindenburg Research's fraud allegations.
Saying it has no objection to constituting the panel, the Centre, at the same time, stressed that market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and other statutory bodies are "fully equipped", not only regime-wise, but otherwise also to deal with the situation.
Ramesh said it is important to look at the petition that had been filed in the court which he claimed was basically against Hindenburg research.
Investigation should be against Adani and its ties with the government, Ramesh said.
Ramesh said he would, however, also make it clear that the Congress is in favour of private investments and they need to be encouraged.
"We have always said we are in favour of entrepreneurship and that is the way forward for economic development. We are against blind privatisation and selling of PSUs," he said.
The Congress is in favour of liberalisation, but this should be on the basis of rules and institutions which should function independently so that the rules can be applied in an impartial and transparent manner. Our fight is against crony capitalism, he asserted.
"We will not be cowed down, we will keep raising our voice," he said.
He also claimed that all Opposition parties are on the same page in demanding a JPC probe into the Adani issue.
(With PTI input)
