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March 27, 2024

Bob Brown criticises Adani move to arrest journalist

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Environmentalist Bob Brown has warned that Adani’s latest move to arrest an Indian journalist is designed to scare media away from investigating the company’s activity.

A court in Adani’s home state of Gujarat has issued an arrest warrant for investigative journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in relation to a criminal defamation case brought by Adani.

The Adani Group had pursued the defamation lawsuit following Mr Guha Thakurta’s 2017 article on a ‘Rupees 500 crore [$100 million] bonanza’ Adani received from the Indian government.

Bob Brown said: ‘This is a SLAPP [strategic lawsuit against public participation] writ aimed at both silencing the journalist and sending a shiver of fear through the media to halt any genuine investigation into Adani’s commercial empire.’

Brown pointed out the similarities to Adani’s court case against Australian climate campaigner Ben Pennings, where Adani repeatedly applied for warrants to raid Mr Pennings’ home for ‘confidential information’.

Mr Pennings said he had had contact with Mr Guha Thakurta in the past and was very interested in this developing case.

‘Adani has been attacking journalists and citizen activists for decades,’ said Mr Pennings, who has organised a number of boycotts of Adani by contractors and the public.

‘Yet people continue to expose Adani’s active involvement in corruption, ecocide and even genocide. Adani needs to embrace ethical practices and the new economy before the weight of public opinion in India and beyond sinks them like a stone.’

The coordinator of website AdaniWatch, Geoff Law, said that Adani is clearly spooked by the wave of protest against the group’s activities in India, where communities are opposing pro-corporate farm laws, moves to turn Goa into a coal hub, massive new port developments, and the takeover of indigenous lands for coal plants.


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4 COMMENTS

  1. How I yearn for a Minister like the late “Rex the Strangler” Connor, Minister under Gough Whitlam. he would have got that Indian shyster in a headlock, run him out of his office, flung him down the Parliament House steps, then had his office fumigated.
    From the start, Adani has sought to mine the Galilee basin using anybody else’s money but his own. Bank after Bank has refused him, he can’t insure the mine against public risk (only his contractors are covered).
    Why he is being encouraged, all for a handful of jobs the locals won’t get (he’ll go FIFO like all the other miners) is a mystery to me.
    Methinks something is rotten in the State of Queensland. This venture should never have been contemplated anywhere.

  2. Graham, of course something is rotten and it not just The QLD state government that caved into pressure during the 2019 federal election campaign to approve the Adani environmental plan despite the issue of the source of The Doongmabulla Springs still not having been proved and just too bad for the Yakka Skink, the Ornamental Snake and our reigning Birdlife Australia, Bird of The Year, the Black-throated Finch. Then of course is that ‘Royalties Holiday’ being granted. At federal level we had both The Coalition and The ALP vote in the Senate to amend Native Title Law Rights to extinguish all objections, under federal law, to the Adani mine project. the question is, what hold does Adani have over Australia’s politicians?

  3. Thanks Graham Barnes for that wonderful vision of Rex the Strangler O’connor doing the whole world a favour and trouncing the dreadful Adani.
    It’s a mystery to me that so many Labor pollies are still so reluctant to say no to coal and gas….even and despite the loss of jobs of miners and therefore votes.
    Can’t they imagine a “new world” of renewable energy with Oz leading the way? And even more jobs for their voters?
    Such self serving short sightedness does no one any favours …not even the Labor party. The big 2 parties rely on the fact that there are still too few Greens voters to risk them losing government.
    Come on Brave New Oz ….go boldly Green at the next election and help change the future of our fabulous country and that of our kids. Something’s got to give. The Labor Party is every bit as conservative as the Coaltion now….where are the great forward looking politicians of this time of great change? Whether we like it or not, the future is here with all it’s climate and pandemic threats being realised before our eyes.

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