External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday slammed the recent remarks by billionaire investor George Soros on Adani issue. He said that Soros is old, rich, opinionated, dangerous and invests resources in shaping narratives.
Soros (92) while speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Thursday said that the Adani issue has shaken faith in India as an investment opportunity. "Modi is silent on the subject, but he will have to answer questions from foreign investors and in parliament," said Soros.
BJP had lashed out against his remarks saying that it was an “attack on Indian democracy”.
Soros had also said that Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fates are entwined and alleged that Modi was not a “democrat.” “Adani's business empire may open the door to a democratic revival in India,” he said.
During a session at Raisina@Sydney Dialogue, Jaishankar said that Soros is an "old, rich, opinionated person sitting in New York, who still thinks that his views should determine how the entire world works."
"Now, if I could only stop at old, rich and opinionated, I would put it away but he is old, rich, opinionated and dangerous," Jaishankar said.
He also added that a few years back Soros has accused India of planning to strip millions of Muslims of their citizenship.
"We know the dangers of what happens when there's outside interference if you do this kind of scaremongering, like millions of people will be deprived of citizenship, it actually does real damage to our societal fabric," he said.
"There are other manifestations of this in different countries, where people like him think an election is good if the person we want to see wins. If the election throws up a different outcome, then we actually will say it's a flawed democracy," he said.
On Friday, Union Minister Smriti Irani at a press conference called on Indians to to denounce Soros's intention to demonise the democracy.
“The man who broke bank of England and is designated by nation an economic war criminal has now pronounced his desire to break Indian democracy. George Soros... has declared his ill-intention to intervene in democratic processes of India,” she said.
After the Hindenburg report accused it of accounting fraud and stock manipulation on January 24, Adani Group has been under immense pressure.
(With PTI inputs)
