New Delhi, India

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The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India on Monday (Aug 12) lashed out at US-based short seller Hindenburg over its report which alleged that the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch held investments in offshore funds also used by the Adani Group.

Addressing a press conference, senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad questioned who was investing in Hindenburg. Prasad alleged that Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros was the main investor in Hindenburg.

Also read | Hindenburg claps back at Madhabi Buch after SEBI chief issues clarification

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"Do you know this gentleman George Soros who regularly runs propaganda against India...He is the main investor there...," he told reporters. 

Not the first time BJP sparred with Soros

This is not the first time that the BJP-led Modi government has sparred with Soros. It all started last year when Hindenburg released a report that alleged Gautam Adani (Adani Group's chairperson) improperly used tax havens and flagged concerns about high debt levels at the company.

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In February 2023, Soros said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fate was ‘intertwined’ with Adani's. 

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“Modi and business tycoon Adani are close allies. Their fate is intertwined. Adani is accused of stock manipulation and his stock collapsed like a house of cards. Modi is silent on the subject, but he will have to answer questions from foreign investors and in Parliament,” Soros said during the Munich Security Conference on February 16. 

The BJP was quick to counter that Soros wanted to destroy India's democracy and wanted some "hand-picked" people to run the government.

“A foreign power at the centre of which is a man named George Soros has announced that he will hurt India’s democratic structure. He has announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be his main target," then-Union minister Smriti Irani said last year.

He has also announced that he will help build a system in India that will protect his interests,” she added. 

A dig at Congress

During Monday's press conference, BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad took a dig at the opposition Congress party over the Hindenburg-SEBI chief issue. "In their pathological hatred against Narendra Modi, the Congress Party today has developed hatred against India itself," Prasad.

Also read | Did SEBI Chief Madhabi Buch fail to disclose Adani links, recuse from probes?

As Adani Group's stocks fell earlier in the day, Prasad said, "If India's stock market gets disturbed, will the small investors be troubled or not?"

He further alleged that the Congress wanted "to crash the entire stock market, stop the capital investment of small investors and ensure that there should be no economic investment in India..."