'Global lobbies mobilised against our coal project': Gautam Adani says battle of narrative is relentless

Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani on Tuesday said that India needs to control its narrative or its growth will be criminalised. He also said that this battle of the narrative is relentless. He recalled how Adani's Carmichael mining project in Australia became the victim of what he called a "false narrative" by foreign players.

"When we went to Australia, it was not that Bharat lacked coal. What Bharat lacked was quality coal. The Carmichael mine was born out of this necessity to substitute our local coal with better-grade imported coal. But little did we know that our Carmichael mine would become one of the most contested energy projects of this century," Adani said during an address at the IIT (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad.

The billionaire said that global environmental lobbies mobilised against the Adani Group. Protests were staged across continents, banks withdrew lending across businesses - we were vilified in the international media, debated in foreign parliaments and dragged through courtrooms, he added.

"Every signal was Back down. Retreat. Give-up the project. But we did not," he asserted. "Because our Carmichael mine was never a commercial bet. It was a commitment to our nation's energy security. And today, the very same Carmichael mine powers cleaner industrial growth in Bharat, and sustains thousands of livelihoods in Australia."

That is the paradox of nation-building, he emphasised. "You may be resisted, ridiculed, and punished long before you are acknowledged. Yet history has a way of settling its accounts. For in the end, they may write the headlines, but we will write the history."

Adani said that critics debate the Carmichael project even today. Hitting back at them, the billionaire said that the critics conveniently forget that his group has "invested to become one of the world's fastest-growing renewable energy companies."

"We are also building the world's largest renewable energy park, at Khavda in Gujarat, spread over 520 square kilometres. At full capacity by 2030, this park will generate 30 GW of green energy. At an average India house-hold consumption, this would be equivalent to powering over 60 million national homes per year," he reminded.

The Adani Group, with the first 10 GW already commissioned, is on track to deliver the world's lowest-cost green electron, thereby setting a global benchmark in energy transition, he added. "This is the asymmetry of storytelling. When we build coal for responsibility and dignity of our countrymen, we are criticised. When we build renewables at a global scale, our success becomes invisible."

"And I say this because false narratives destroy confidence. They make a nation doubt its own people and its own enterprises. But a nation with confidence tells its own story. It recognises its builders, protects its institutions, and defends its aspirations."