Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha M Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday demanded a Joint Parliamentary   Committee (JPC) probe into the allegations against the Adani Group and charged the ruling party with spreading hatred in the country and ignoring the weaker sections of society.

He also said the economy was in a poor shape and the government was unable to provide jobs to the youth despite promises.  Kharge also said the recent ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ undertaken by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was not aimed against any one and quipped “nafrat choro, bharat jodo.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the house when the leader of opposition(LOP) raised questions about the so-called meteoric rise of the Adani group in the last few years due to proximity to Modi and claimed the group had borrowed Rs more than Rs 80,000 crores from public sector banks.  He also urged the Prime Minister to ask his ministers and MPs to refrain from making alleged inflammatory remarks.

The House saw repeated exchanges between the treasury and the Congress members with Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar time and again asking Kharge to substantiate his charges.

Kharge made these claims while participating in the debate on the 'Motion of Thanks on the President's Address.'  Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman objected to "insinuations" against the prime minister.

In 2014, the prime minister had made the statement "na khaunga, na khane dunga", Kharge said, and asked, "Was it a jumla?" The Congress leader also wondered if the prime minister was pandering to a select few industrialists.

Without naming Gautam Adani, who is in the middle of a political storm after the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research's adverse report triggered a meltdown in the group stocks wiping out billions of dollars in market value, the Leader of Opposition said the wealth of a "close friend" of Modi has grown 13 times in two-and-a-half years.

The individual's wealth has gone up from Rs 50,000 crore in 2014 to Rs 1 lakh crore in 2019, Kharge alleged, and wondered what miracle happened in two years that wealth of Rs 12 lakh crore has been acquired.

Stressing that he does not understand such a "fast development", Kharge asked if it was because of the friendship. Dhankhar intervened and said the discourse cannot stoop to allegations which are not substantiated or to the use of "loose expressions" and casting of aspersions without any basis.

Goyal also intervened and said Kharge was making an allegation which cannot be substantiated and about "an association which has absolutely has no basis whatsoever".

"He is talking of a purported wealth which does not have any merit. That is a share market calculation, in which the government has no role to play. It is for the regulators to see and for the share market participants to decide what value they give," Goyal asserted. Sitharaman also objected to Kharge's statement. "It is one thing to say it is valuation, don't you understand? Please, alright, quote the valuation but they are subtly and overtly repeatedly insinuating against the honourable PM, that's what we are objecting to," she asserted.

When Kharge remarked that instead of strengthening public sector enterprises, which provide jobs to 10 lakh people, the government was letting public money to the tune of Rs 82,000 crore to be used to support the Adani Group, which employs "only 30,000 people", Dhankhar intervened and said India has a robust mechanism on how people are awarded contracts.

"I am only cautioning the LoP that he is trying to give an impression that India is a country where contracts can be just given away," the Chairman said, drawing sharp response from the opposition members.

Goyal said the chair is duty-bound to protect Indians to ensure that the national interest is not compromised.

Dhankhar said any comments made in the House should be in national interest and should be authenticated. It cannot be an allegation without substance, he added.

Opposition members then jointly asked the Chairman to point out the anti-national comments that Kharge has made. "Why I say so? An expression was given by the Leader of the Opposition that the largest democracy on earth is giving contracts like this," Dhankhar said.