Rae Bareli (UP) (PTI): Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks to the US press on the controversy involving Adani Group, saying it was not a "personal matter" but one about the country.
Gandhi made the remarks while addressing youths at an event in the Lalganj area during the second day of his visit to his parliamentary constituency.
The Congress leader was referring to PM Modi's media interaction during his recent US visit when he was quizzed about discussions with US President Donald Trump and the ongoing controversy about the Adani Group. The prime minister said it was "an individual issue" and such issues are not discussed when two world leaders meet, Gandhi commented.
"Narendra Modi ji, this is not a personal matter. It's a matter of the country," Gandhi said.
He alleged that PM Modi told the American press that business tycoon Gautam Adani was his friend he would not ask Trump anything about him.
A case of "corruption and theft" was pending against Adani in the US, Gandhi further alleged.
"And what our PM says, it's an individual matter and we don't discuss it! Had he truly been India's prime minister, he would have asked Trump about the matter and told him that he would get it enquired and if needed send him (to the US) for inquiry. But no, he said it's a personal matter," Gandhi told the audience.
On February 14, PM Modi said he did not discuss the bribery charges that the US government had levelled against business tycoon Gautam Adani during his meeting with Trump. At a press briefing at the White House, Modi was asked if he raised the issue of the indictment of Adani and his key associates in a New York court over his involvement in an alleged bribery scheme.
"Firstly, India is a democratic country, and our culture and our thought philosophy are, 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam'. We consider the whole world as one family. I believe every Indian is mine," he said.
The prime minister went on to state that such "individual issues" are not discussed when two world leaders meet.
"Two prominent leaders of two countries never discuss such individual issues," he said.
Trump also made no mention of the case during the presser.
Last year, the Department of Justice under the previous president Joe Biden charged Adani for allegedly being part of a scheme to pay over USD 250 million (about Rs 2,100 crore) bribe to Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms for solar power contracts.
This was concealed from the US banks and investors from whom the Adani group raised billions of dollars for the project, the prosecutors had alleged last year citing US FCPA law that allows pursuing foreign corruption allegations if they involve certain links to American investors or markets.
The Adani group denied the allegations as baseless.
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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).