Why is everyone talking about George Soros? What did he say about PM Modi & Adani? Know all his controversies

American billionaire investor George Soros has been in the news recently for his comments on the report by short-seller Hindenburg Research on the Adani Group, and Gautam Adani’s connections with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He asked why PM Modi is silent on this matter and not answering the questions from foreign investors and in parliament. The billionaire investor George Soros said this ahead of the Munich Security Conference (MSC).

“This will significantly weaken Modi’s stranglehold on India’s federal government and open the door to push for much-needed institutional reforms. I may be naive, but I expect a democratic revival in India”, said Soros.

A day after Soros questioned PM Modi’s silence over the Hindenburg report on Adani, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)’s Union Minister, Smriti Irani contested Soros and said that the comments are an “attack on India that would not be tolerated”.

This is not the first time when Soros has spoken against India and PM Modi. In 2020 as well, he slammed the current Indian government while addressing an event at World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos and said that nationalism was making headway and that is the “biggest setback” for India.

Who is George Soros?

George Soros is a billionaire Hungarian-American investor, short-seller and philanthropist. He was born in 1930 to a prosperous Jewish family in Hungary, his family changed their name from ‘Schwartz’ to ‘Soros’ to hide their Jewish identity amidst the rise of anti-semitism in Hungary. His family was one of the few families who survived the Holocaust by purchasing forged identity papers.

Soros himself recalled that “instead of submitting to our fate, we resisted an evil force that was much stronger than we were—yet we prevailed. Not only did we survive, but we managed to help others”.

After the War when the Communists consolidated their position in Hungary, Soros left for London where he got a degree from the London School of Economics. Soros then became an investment banker and opened his first hedge fund, Double Eagles, in 1969. In 1973, he opened Soros Fund Management and became one of the most successful investors in the history of the United States.

Using his wealth he opened the Open Society Foundations, "a network of foundations, partners, and projects in more than 100 countries". Soros has been supportive of a variety of human-related issues as well, like providing scholarships to black South Africans during the apartheid and promoting academic exchanges with Communist Hungary to promoting medical marijuana and supporting same-sex marriages.

What did Soros say about PM Modi?

In a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Thursday, Soros said Modi would “have to answer questions” from foreign investors and Parliament on allegations the Adani group is facing. He claimed, “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 added further without any evidence to his claim.

This is not the first time that Soros had criticised Indian PM, Modi. In 2020, Soros said, “The biggest and most frightening setback occurred in India where a democratically elected Narendra Modi is creating a Hindu nationalist state, imposing punitive measures on Kashmir, a semi-autonomous Muslim region, and threatening to deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship”.

Indian Union Minister Smriti Irani fires back at George Soros

A day after billionaire George Soros questioned PM Modi’s silence over the Hindenburg report on Adani, the ruling party fired a few salvos backat him and called his comments an “attack on India that would not be tolerated.”

Calling him an “economic war criminal” and “a man who broke the Bank of England”, Smriti Irani said that Soros declared his “ill intentions to interfere in the democratic processes of India”, and wants a government that is pliable to his needs.

“That he has announced funding of over a billion dollars, particularly to target leaders like Prime Minister Modi is significant. I call upon every individual or organisation, societal or political, to denounce the intention of this individual who seeks to demonise our democracy, weaken our democratic interests and bring an onslaught to the economy of India all so that he can personally gain,” Irani said at a press conference on Friday at the party headquarters.

George Soros and his many controversies

The man who ‘broke the Bank of England’

In the UK, Soros is famously known as “the man who broke the Bank of England” in 1992. He borrowed pounds and then sold them, propelling the price of sterling on currency markets to drop which ultimately led the UK to crash out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. His Quantum Fund earned $ 1 billion in the whole process.

Soros and his connection with protests

In 2018, Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed Soros was supporting activist Osman Kavala, whom the Turkish president blamed for the 2013 Gezi Park protests, reported The Washington Post.
In 2020, then US president Donald Trump also claimed that Soros and others are “financing Antifa or anti-fascist” protesters.

DidSoros ‘helped Nazis’?

This is considered one of the “ugliest conspiracy theories” against Soros. There were allegations about Soros forsaking his fellow Jews and helping the Nazis. Controversial actor Rosanne Barr tweeted in 2018, “By the way, George Soros is a Nazi who turned in his fellow Jews to be murdered in German concentration camps & stole their wealth”.

Though Soros refuted all allegations and said that he never confiscated property from the Jews.