The Indian union government ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday launched vehement attack in social media and also via press on billionaire George Soros who predicted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be weakened by the woes of business tycoon Gautam Adani.
Union Minister Smriti Irani called upon Indians to unitedly respond to “foreign powers who try to intervene in India’s democratic processes”, calling his remarks “attack on India”.
George Soros is now 92 years old is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. As of March 2021, he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundations, of which $15 billion has already been distributed, representing 64% of his original fortune.
According to Open Society Foundations, under George Soros’s leadership, it supports individuals and organizations across the globe fighting for freedom of expression, accountable government, and societies that promote justice and equality.
Open Society Foundations gives grants to groups and individuals that promote democracy, transparency and freedom of speech.
Earlier In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2020, Soros pledged $1 billion to fund a new university network “to tackle the spread of nationalism”, according to a Forbes report.
In that speech, he criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then US President Donald Trump, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“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,” Soros had said, according to media reports.
Soros has said the turmoil engulfing Gautam Adani’s business empire that has shaken the faith in India as an investment opportunity may open the door to a democratic revival in the country.
Soros on Thursday said PM Modi would “have to answer questions” from foreign investors and parliament on allegations of fraud and stock manipulation at Adani’s industrial empire. The stocks of the Adani Group tumbled after US-based short seller Hindenburg released a report accusing the Adani group companies of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.
While delivering a speech at the 2023 Munich Security Conference, George Soros noted that PM Modi had been “silent” on the topic.
