Many more significant issues than Adani: Pawar

Issues such as unemployment, price rise and those pertaining to farmers are more important and should be raised by Opposition instead of giving undue importance to a US shortseller's report on industrialist Gautam Adani's firms, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said on Saturday.

Pawar also said he was not completely opposed to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the charges against the Adani group, but a Supreme Court committee would be more useful and effective.

If a JPC has 21 members, 15 will be from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) due to numerical strength in Parliament and six from the Opposition, which will create doubts on the effectiveness of the panel, Pawar told reporters.

"I am not completely opposed to the JPC...there have been JPCs and I have been a chairman of some of the JPCs. The JPC will be constituted on the basis of majority (in Parliament). Instead of a JPC, I am of the opinion the Supreme Court panel is more useful and effective," he said.

"Nowadays, names of Ambani, Adani are being taken (to criticise the government) but we need to think about their contribution to the country. I think other issues such as unemployment, price rise, and farmers' issues are more important and should be raised by the Opposition," Pawar added.