BENGALURU: The Chief Minister's Office, which routinely publicises meetings with prominent visitors through official photographs and statements, has issued no such note on industrialist Gautam Adani's meeting with Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, and nor has the visit been mentioned on the CMO's Twitter handle or any other social media platform. This silence is in contrast to the CMO's usual practice and has fuelled speculation about political sensitivity surrounding the meeting.
The visit appears to have caught the Congress off-guard. The party has built much of its national campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi around allegations of crony capitalism and the Central government's proximity to the Adani Group, making a meeting between its own Chief Minister and the businessman an awkward optic to manage.
Home Minister Priyank Kharge moved quickly to label the meeting as routine and apolitical, terming it as a contractor calling on a chief minister, nothing more. Asked why Adani met Shivakumar, Kharge said, "Whatever our opinion of Adani may be, he has purchased the ACC Cement factory in Chittapur. What can I do about that? We simply have to follow the law," he said. Chittapur is Kharge's own constituency.
Kharge termed the meeting as "procedural rather than political" and that the Adani Group was the lowest bidder on two state projects.
He emphasized that the government's hands were tied by process. "We cannot interfere with the tender process... For us, he is nothing more than a contractor," he said - a framing that appeared designed to insulate the Shivakumar government from charges of cosying up to a businessman the Congress has long targeted nationally.