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Adani Chief Gautam Adani with Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Adani boss, India’s richest man, has US$ 48bn wiped off his US$ 208bn

India’s richest man just had US$ 48bn wiped off his US$ 208bn Adani Group that an American short seller this week alleged had been engaged in “a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.”

Gautam Adani saw five of his seven listed businesses ending Friday 16 to 20 percent lower. This includes Adani Green Energy Ltd which only last year was issued provisional approvals for two wind projects in Mannar and Pooneryn, representing a reported investment of more than US$ 500mn.

Adani Ports, which lost 15.24% of its share price, had separately started construction of an estimated US$ 700mn terminal at the Colombo Port. How the scandal impacts these projects now remained to be seen.

Even taken at face value, the financials of the Adani Group showed that its seven listed companies had 85 percent downside “purely on a fundamental basis owing to sky-high valuations,” US short seller Hindenburg’s report said. Key listed companies have also “taken on substantial debt, including pledging shares of their inflated stock for loans, putting the entire group on precarious financial footing.”

The Adani Group had called the fraud allegations baseless and accused Hindenburg of trying to smear its reputation and derail a public stock offering by one of its companies.

According to Charles Schwab, the US financial advisory firm, short sellers borrow a security whose price they think would fall from their brokerage and sold it on the open market. They then planned to buy the same stock back later, hopefully for a lower price than they sold it for and pocket the difference after repaying the initial loan.

Protesting Central Bank staff wear black, governor also wears black

When the monthly media conference on the Central Bank’s Money Policy was convened, its own trade unions decided to gain some media attention. Hats off to the union leaders for fixing the protest for a day the media turned up at the Bankers Bank. They were seen wearing black attire and gathered in the lobby to express their opposition to the recent tax hikes which came into effect this month.

Coincidentally or not, Central Bank Governor N. Weerasinghe presided at a media conference in a black suit the previous day, when some employees were also in black. Journalists were curious whether the Central Bank chief was also expressing solidarity with his staff, and one of them raised the question about his comment on another protest to be organised on the following day outside the Bank premises.

The Governor responded that it was the democratic right of everyone to protest about issues they cared about, and they were free to wear whatever they wanted.

How about that for a straight answer.

Former Minister questions Canada’s sanctioning of two Presidents

Former Public Security Minister and onetime Navy Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera, has taken up cudgels with the Canadian government’s recent announcement that it was imposing sanctions on two former Sri Lankan Presidents and two former servicemen. He quoted a chapter and provision from the international protocols and questioned the hypocrisy of the Canadian government, asking it; “why seest thou the mote in your brother’s eye, but first take the beam out of your own eye.” It seemed to be ‘an eye for an eye’ response, which he sent to the Canadian High Commissioner in Colombo.

The letter referred to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) first adopting a resolution congratulating the Sri Lankan Government soon after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was defeated, bringing the long-standing insurgency to an end and liberating tens of thousands of Tamil civilians kept by the terrorist group as hostages.

But by 2014-2015, the same UNHRC turned its tune, passing a resolution to investigate the Sri Lankan armed forces on the grounds there was credible evidence that suggested war crimes had been committed. The Indian and Pakistani envoys had then condemned what they referred to be an “intrusive invasion” of national sovereignty by these resolutions.

The Parliamentarian said no political or military advantage was served in killing civilians or shelling hospitals indiscriminately and it was the LTTE that killed hostages who tried to escape. Around 290,000 civilians were freed by the armed forces.

As the insurgency was classified as a non-international armed conflict, only people who had committed an offence under the International Humanitarian Law should be tried, which meant that “command responsibility” was not recognised under international law. He asked on what basis therefore, did Canada impose sanctions on the two former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The nasty sting however, was in the tail of the former minister’s letter where he drew from a report of The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada which revealed, with evidence, persistent and deliberate violations of their human rights by Canadians against indigenous women and girls in their own country. He asked what moral right Canada had to pass judgement on human rights violations in other countries, and that too without evidence.

The Parliamentarian then came to the preponderant view and the irresistible conclusion that the Canadian government was merely weighed down by the pressure of the LTTE diaspora in that country to do what it had done. He is awaiting a reply to his letter from the Canadian envoy in Colombo. We wish him luck.

Journalists locked out of Kandy MC meeting, no reason given

Media personnel were not allowed to enter the Kandy Municipal Council Chamber last Friday even though they had been invited to cover the first meeting of the MC after its Budget.

The business on the agenda was the election of seven committees of the Kandy Municipal Council for the duration of this year. Mayor Kesera Senanayake presided.

For many years, journalists had been invited to cover these meetings. They were of great importance as taxpayers and people were entitled to know who was sitting on these committees. However, the meeting was held behind closed doors this time, and no journalists were permitted inside.

Media personnel inquired about the matter from an official who had sent out the invitations to journalists, but they could not obtain a satisfactory answer as to who ordered that they be excluded from the meeting, and why.

US envoy coming to Sri Lanka for second time in ten months

Victoria Nuland, the United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, will be visiting Sri Lanka next week for the second time in ten months.

But more than her diplomacy, she is often remembered worldwide for the commanding role she played in manipulating Ukraine’s Revolution that overthrew the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, and, of course, also for her famous “F*** the EU” outburst that was leaked online when she realised the European Union was dragging its feet to join
her regime change plans.

Although it is an exaggeration to say that
wherever Ms Nuland goes, political upheaval, like Mary’s lamb, follows her, it was only weeks after she was in Sri Lanka in March last year that the first shots of Sri Lanka’s Aragalaya were fired.

Wennappuwa party organiser hauled over the wall

A prominent political party’s Wennappuwa organiser, who is hoping to contest the local council elections, barely escaped being assaulted by enraged candidates and supporters after he turned up at the Puttalam District Secretariat without the party’s nomination papers.

The man had come carrying a file containing the envelope that was supposed to contain the nomination papers but when he opened it, he found that the envelope was empty.

Frantic inquiries revealed that the hapless organiser had left the nomination papers on top of a wall at his party’s headquarters in a Colombo suburb. Discussions regarding the nomination papers had been held at the party head office till late into the night the day before, and somehow, the man had placed the signed papers on top of the wall and had forgotten to put them inside the envelope.

An attempt to courier the documents to the Puttalam District Secretariat failed as there was not enough time, meaning the party could not field any candidates from Wennappuwa at this year’s election.

Furious candidates and supporters went after the man, who luckily managed to get away unscathed. They were later heard complaining, “Are these the sort of people we want to hand the country over to?”

Scenes from South Indian cinema: Gang plays havoc in Chunnakam

It is often considered that cinema and real life are interconnected as the cinema is hugely inspired by real life for portrayal, but no one at Chunnakam in Jaffna would have expected to witness something they would only see in South Indian gangster movies.

It was cinema-type live gangster violence that unfolded on the main street of Chunnakam on Tuesday as onlookers watched. A group of armed thugs with sharp weapons such as swords and knives chased down a car caught in traffic, stopped it in the middle of the road and started assaulting the passengers mercilessly.

A scene from the clash at Chunnakam in Jaffna. Pic by Romesh Madushanka

Once they assaulted the passengers, they tried to set the vehicle on fire with the passengers inside, but thanks to some courageous onlookers who immediately informed the nearby Police station, a Police patrol turned up and the gang fled the scene.

Police preliminary investigations revealed the attack was motivated by gang rivalry, and one of the gang members from another party who is currently on bail was travelling in that vehicle. Three individuals were admitted to the hospital with severe injuries.

Southern Indian cinema is influential to the extent that Northern youths who are unemployed these days are resorting to other avenues amid the economic crisis that prevails in the country.