Prime Minister Narendra Modi was asked a question by a reporter during a joint press conference on Thursday, February 13 with United States President Donald Trump if he had discussed Indian industrialist Gautam Adani’s alleged bribery case during their interactions.
“First of all, India is a democratic country and our culture is ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (The whole world is a family). We treat the world as a family, and I treat every Indian as one of my own. Secondly, leaders of two countries neither meet nor discuss such matters,” PM Modi replied regarding the bribery allegations against billionaire Gautam Adani.
The PM is on a two-day visit to the United States to discuss India-US bilateral ties with President Trump. After an hour-long meeting, both leaders addressed a joint press conference with international media wherein the Indian prime minister was asked if he had discussed Gautam Adani’s case with President Trump.
“When two world leaders meet they don’t discuss such ‘personal matters’,” PM Modi added.
The international press media was not done with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Another reporter asked him how “confident he is in the Trump administration as compared to Biden’s incompetence and weakness over the last four years?”
After a moment of silence, President Trump intervened saying he would like to answer the question.
“That’s your (PM Modi’s) question but I’ll answer it… I agree with you (reporter),” the President said.
Trump called the former US administration a “gross incompetence” saying that the world has seen a setback in the last four years due to the weakness of Biden’s leadership. Trump however asserts he has taken care of it in just three weeks after coming back to power.
President Trump was also questioned on reciprocal tariffs to which he replied that charging India and other countries tariffs as high as they were charging America was only fair. He also mentioned how he had planned to impose reciprocal tariffs in his last term but refrained from doing so considering the whole world was suffering due to COVID-19.
“I decided not to do them (reciprocal tariffs) on a humane basis because there was such suffering all over the world the last thing we needed to talk about was trade problems” he said.
Gautam Adani’s bribery charges
Last year industrialist Gautam Adani along with his nephew Sagar Adani were indicted by the US Department of Justice for bribing Indian officials of USD 250 million (over Rs 2,100 crore) to secure solar power contracts funded by international investors.
Earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order to pause the enforcement of the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) which prohibits American companies and foreign firms from bribing officials of foreign governments to obtain or retain business. This act was at the heart of the case against Gautam Adani.
