Stop Adani

A post that is about the coming together of capitalism, religion, and divisive nationalistic politics, might suggest to an American that this post is about tRump, whose political power is driven by "faithful" Christians and rabid capitalists alike, who are all united in their "bah, humbug!" attitude towards the natural environment.  But, America is not truly exceptional when it comes to such a formula of religious political economy.

This post is about the old country, where its current Prime Minister has long been a tRump well before tRump even surfaced as a candidate who slithered down the golden escalators.

Observing India from the other side of the planet, which is what I have been doing for 35 years, I wrote in this blog-post in March 2009: "I won't be surprised at all if Modi, or somebody like him, becomes the prime minister really soon."

He was elected Prime Minister in 2014, and was successfully re-elected in 2019.  Prior to his election in 2014, I authored a commentary in The Register Guard, in which I wrote:

Odds are looking highly favorable for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leader, Narendra Modi. Both the BJP and Modi have cultivated a nationalistic spirit, bordering on jingoism.  The party and Modi also have strong associations with Hindu nationalist groups.  Modi is alleged to have had a hand in the anti-Muslim riots in 2002, though subsequent government inquiries have cleared him of those charges. It is for these reasons that the US State Department has also denied Modi a visa to visit this country.  If Modi gets elected Prime Minister, I suppose we here would have an interesting and controversial political question to resolve.

mOdi's pro-business policies that couldn't care about the natural environment was lauded by corporate India, despite his divisive politics of Hindus vs others--especially Muslims.  Through all these years one person in particular has become so prosperous that he is now wealthier than Jeff Bezos, and that man is Gautam Adani.

Gautam #Adani’s wealth has risen from an estimated $8bn at the time of #Modi’s election in 2014 to $137bn today, a rise of more than 1,600%.
Ah, yes, a mere coincidence!https://t.co/0XyGHDQ00o #Gujarat #FossilFuels

— Sriram K (@congoboy) August 31, 2022

How did he create those billions? "Many of his businesses are involved in natural gas, coal mining and electricity generation, and are likely to have benefited from the global energy price increase."

From the descriptions thus far, you are perhaps hypothesizing that there is a huge movement in India against this mega-mega-rich Indian and, hence, the "Stop Adani" slogan.

Nope.

It is from way down under.

Source

The "Stop Adani" protests are truly Australian.

What has Adani done to piss off the usually laid back and sun-loving Australians?  "Adani is digging the biggest coal mine in Australian history"

Adani still plans to dig the biggest coal mine in Australia, extracting up to 60 million tonnes of coal a year for 90 years, and creating 4.6 billion tonnes of carbon pollution. Adani’s coal will be shipped through the Great Barrier Reef via Adani’s Abbot Point coal port and burned in Adani’s Indian coal plants. 

Adani’s mine will open the way for at least 8 other mega coal mines in Queensland’s Galilee Basin - one of the largest unexploited coal reserves in the world.

Stopping the world's third wealthiest guy from pursuing his grand ideas will not be easy, as one can imagine.

Adani continues to flex his muscles in order to pay back to the political movement and its leaders who made possible his unimaginable wealth.  A couple of weeks ago, Adani "a 29 percent stake in New Delhi Television (NDTV) and a proposal to buy an additional 26 percent from public shareholders."

Gautam Adani, the richest man in Asia and a close ally of prime minister Narendra Modi, owns some of India’s busiest airports and seaports, coal mines and power plants. This week, Adani made a foray into a new field — television — in a move that could reshape India’s media landscape.

...

It is not clear when Adani, who overtook Warren Buffett this year to become the world’s fourth-richest man, would amass a majority stake in NDTV and take control. But the move by a business mogul who famously lent his private jet to the prime minister-elect after Modi’s 2014 election triumph stunned India’s liberal elite, threw the broadcaster’s staff into upheaval and surprised even NDTV’s founders.

Because, you know, India too needs its own Fox News!

I doubt if either Adani or mOdi can be stopped.  What a tragedy!

Coal billionaire Gautum Adani is now the world's 2nd richest person. His company has extracted more coal almost every year since the Paris agreement. A big jump forecast next year as extraction from the new Carmichael mine in Australia ramps up. Yes, a new coal mine. In Australia pic.twitter.com/pHrIR7NIQJ

— XR Cambridge (@xr_cambridge) September 17, 2022