Gautam Adani has two-hour-long meeting with Sharad Pawar in Mumbai

MUMBAI: NCP president Sharad Pawar held a two-hour-long meeting with industrialist Gautam Adani at his Silver Oak residence in Mumbai on Thursday. There were expectations in political circles that Pawar would put out a tweet about the meeting later, but he did not.
Later in the day, Shiv Sena (UBT) RS MP Sanjay Raut visited Pawar's residence.
The Pawar-Adani meeting assumes importance in view of the Congress's demand for a joint parliamentary probe into allegations made against the Adani Group and Pawar's recent statements opposing such a probe and saying that the Adani Group was being targeted.Pawar had also raised questions about the credentials of the international shortseller Hindenburg Research which had put out a report making charges against the business group.
On April 7, Pawar had said that the setting up of a JPC would be a futile exercise as members of the BJP would dominate the panel. The Supreme Court had already set up a committee to look into the matter, and that inquiry would be more appropriate, he had then said.
With Congress keeping up the demand and several other opposition parties too keen on a JPC, Pawar later toned down his remarks, saying that while his views on a JPC probe were clear, he would not oppose the demand for such a probe, if it were made by parties in the opposition, for the sake of opposition unity.
Former CM Prithviraj Chavan was among the opposition leaders to strongly oppose Pawar's position. Chavan had said that Pawar's contention that a JPC would not serve any purpose was baseless. He had said a JPC was the only competent authority to probe "such scams." "I was a member of the JPC headed by Pawar which probed the illegal use of pesticides in cold drinks. Pawar had then done an excellent job as JPC chief, and now he is opposing the proposal," Chavan had said.