The TDP coalition government has decided to continue the power supply agreement signed by the previous YSRCP government with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI)-Adani.
After being in a state of disarray for so long, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu himself endorsed the agreement during the energy sector debate in the Assembly on Thursday, thus supporting the ‘corrupt practice’ of the Jaganmohan Reddy government.
The previous YSRCP government signed a power purchase agreement of 7,000 MW from Adani companies through SECI, and an investigation is underway in the US courts with evidence that Adani paid a bribe of Rs. 1,750 crore to key figures in the then state government for this.
At that time TDP itself accused it as a big scam and deplored that the SECI agreement will impose an additional burden of Rs. 1.10 lakh crore on the people of the state in the form of charges. It alleged that that agreement is a blow to the state and the energy sector. As soon as the cases came to light in America, the discussion on the continuation of the agreement started.
The TDP alliance, which came after Jagan’s corruption, has been complaining about the cancellation of the said corrupt agreement. Now Chandrababu’s statements that once a signature is made, there is no going back, if it comes to that, penalties will have to be paid, and credibility will be damaged are just excuses.
It is a contradiction to say that countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have canceled agreements with Adani. Experts, including the former Union Energy Secretary, have quoted clauses in the agreement that there is a possibility of cancellation, but it is clear that those instructions have been deliberately ignored.
Even TDP circles are surprised over Chandrababu’s stand over this agreement and suspecting that it was due to pressure from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is an open secret that the BJP government at the center was behind the agreement signed by the YSRCP government with SECI-Adani. No matter how many financial allegations were made against Adani, the Modi government backed down without even a small investigation.
Even though the case of bribery allegations against Adani was exposed internationally, Modi and his government did not say a single word, which can be gauged from the relationship between Adani and the BJP. That is why it is clear that the coalition government is continuing the corrupt agreement Jagan made with Seki-Adani under pressure from the BJP.
While in opposition, finance minister Payyavula Keshav himself filed a case in the High Court on the Seki agreement. He is currently the Finance Minister. Every day, Chandrababu and Pawan Kalyan threaten YSRCP and Jana Sena that they will not tolerate corruption. Lokesh sneers that they will root out YSRCP corruption. But, surprisingly they are protecting Jagan’s corruption in the highly corrupt Seki-Adani agreement.
