Monday, January 30, 2023

Horse Sense - Adani & Modani

Disclosure: I have no investments in the stock market whatsoever. Therefore, I do not track stock prices. The fate of stock indexes and businesses do not interest me except to the extent of their being good for our economy and as employers. I have also not read the Hindenburg report on Adani and have no interest in reading it. This post marches to a different drum.

Behind every great fortune, there is a crime” – Mario Puzo, “The Godfather”.

The secret of great fortunes without apparent cause is a crime forgotten, for it was properly done” — HonorĂ© de Balzac

A decade ago, I wrote a post on “Horse Sense”. Every person hangs on to an idea or concept and makes it big with foresight or smart work. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos… there are many. Everyone who tells you hard work will get you get there is only half-right. Hard work might make you realise decent results but not rain gold. I consider Amit Shah to be low on talent and mostly a street-level political manipulator unfit for the job of HM. But he has one talent that covers up for all his weaknesses – Horse Sense! Shah clung to the pajama string of PM Narendra Modi right from his Gujarat days to get where he is. On his own merit he wouldn’t have gotten to be a minister:

Horse Sense is simply the intuitive sense to know which horse to bet on and ride. Gautam Adani has that horse sense too. Adani started off as a worker in the diamond business and then into plastics trading. He got his big break when he got the contract for operation of the Mundra port from the BJP govt in Gujarat in 1998. How does a diamond worker or plastics trader get a contract to operate a port? Well, not very different from a comedian becoming the president of Ukraine. But let’s put that aside. Over the years Adani has indeed made a dormant Mundra a successful operation and it now handles the highest traffic in India with the lowest turnaround time for ships. That is indeed a laudable achievement. That obviously gives Adani tons of daring and courage to diversify and undertake all kinds of operations of mega size.

As luck would have it, Adani found a man who thinks a businessman has more courage than a soldier. That is true. Narendra Modi says a businessman, (who either risks his money and in case of India, most business tycoons risk public bank money) has more courage than a soldier who risks his life (Video: 8 secs):

In October 2001, Modi became the CM of Gujarat and that started his association with Adani. And since then, there was no looking back. Adani’s wealth had gone from 2.80 Bn in 2014 to 8.90 Bn in 2020. That’s a reasonable increase. But from 2020 to 2022, his wealth dramatically jumped from 8.90 Bn to 143 Bn to make him the third richest man in the world. That is a seriously phenomenal jump, especially considering businesses struggled across the world due to Covid. Must be some magic potion we don’t understand; at least I don’t. It far surpasses the speed at which Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk multiplied their wealth:

In India, you cannot become a business empire without the blessings and patronage of a political party and their big political leaders. For a long time, the Congress was in power and all the business magnates had no choice but to toe their line or face troubles. The business groups funded Congress and the Congress in turn did them favours, made policies to suit them or overlooked their crimes. No big corrupt businessman ever got prosecuted. And as they became a giant empire, the Ambanis became the biggest supporters of Congress and their sponsors too.

Dhirubhai Ambani had started Reliance in the 1960s but it came to some reckoning as a name in 1975 when they started their “Vimal” factory in Ahmedabad. From being an upper middle class garment brand, Reliance went on to become the biggest commodities player in oil, mobile, foods and so on. They also purchased a lot of govt companies to shore up their balance sheet. Mukesh Ambani had grown so big that he was quoted as saying “Congress toh apni dukaan hai” in the leaked Radia tapes:

As the BJP was born and finding its feet in power, it had no big business house to nurture it. For the first time they found power in Gujarat, the bastion of some of the biggest business houses. The BJP knew the Ambanis were already bedmates of Congress so that they had to either find someone or nurture someone. And may be Gautam Adani had some small connections but that’s how he landed up with Mundra port when BJP was in power in Gujarat. As he slowly grew, Modi was quick to recognise the potential and Adani was also quick to recognise the horse he wanted to ride. That is horse sense. Of course, as a business man, you can get farther with horse sense only if you have some business sense and a vision to dominate the financial muscle in the future. In 2014, as Modi became the PM candidate for BJP, Forbes magazine narrated the story of Adani and his equation with Modi:

In politics, one also needs a bit of luck to go your way. Modi came out of the cloud of the 2002 accusations with a Supreme Court SIT finding and that made him confident to make a run for the PMship. He aggressively lobbied with the BJP bosses to let him run that campaign. The lucky part is; in the last term of Congress, the Ambanis were slowly becoming a little disoriented with Congress too. Although Ambanis attended all the Vibrant Gujarat shows of Modi, they were still aligned to the Congress stable. These events with the oil ministry (And oil had become a big domain for Reliance) did not quite go well with Ambanis. Murli Deora a friend, then Jaipal Reddy an enemy and then another reshuffle just before LS 2014, all left Ambanis and Congress in a flux situation:

The sequence of events shows you that Ambani too tried to get closer to BJP as his relations with Congress were floundering. However, while Modi did not mind, he wanted to nurture Adani as the balancing financial power to Ambani. In politics, you don’t easily trust a camper from the opposing side but build your own business warrior if you get the chance. And that’s how Modi smartly helped Adani build an empire to combat Ambani. As of today, Adani has more wealth than Ambani. And though the Hindenburg report has dented Adani’s credibility a bit and he has fallen to No.7 in the world rich list from No.3 due to erosion of market value, he still remains the richest businessman in India.

Like a said before, India is a Communist, Socialist country regardless of all the nonsense of democracy and free market. Modi is perhaps the biggest Commie India has seen as a PM in all his policies, apart from abuse of caste and religion. There is little doubt that Modi and his govt have breastfed Adani with lucrative contracts, projects and easy funding. From edible oil to ports to airports to containers – I have no idea how many businesses Adani runs. Of course, the funding naturally will be a complex web and maze of operations from India and abroad. It may also explain why Modi & co crawl for puny Qatar. Anyone starting would wonder whether to look at the maze in awe or to not dig in so that you don’t spoil the beauty of it. So, nobody did. SEBI is also conducting some investigation but we know where that will end up. That is why this hue and cry over some Hindenburg report when Adani is poised for an FPO.

During the two year period from 2020 to 2022 businesses worldwide were affected by the Covid interruption. Many small ones had wound up. People lost jobs or had to take salary cuts to survive. Methods of transacting business or work place methods were redefined. Amidst all this trauma and upheaval, only one man in the country (probably even the world) had a dramatic upswing in his fortunes and wealth – Gautam Adani. By December 2022 Adani had 20% of all the wealth of all billionaires put together and his net worth went up 581%. It is simply mind boggling:

To summarise, Adani’s meteoric rise in business and wealth is no accident or mere good fortune. It is a well-planned, well-designed operation by BJP and Modi to prop up a faithful financial giant to combat Ambani. Consequently, Adani too behaves like a gentleman and throws some investments in Congress and TMC and other states to monkey balance. After all, he doesn’t want to get into the bad books of anyone because even “November Rain” doesn’t last forever.

Every brothel needs a pimp. Every political party in India needs a different kind of go-between guy. BJP or rather Amit Shah in recent years has toppled 3 Congress-allied govts – MP, Karnataka and Maharashtra. I don’t think the MLAs who switched to support BJP did so because Amit Shah has a charming personality. The squeaky wheel needs a fair amount of grease. And that’s why every political party in India needs a good Samaritan who has built a complex maze of funds that will grease that wheel. That’s what Adani does for BJP and Modi. Both Modi and Adani just happened to have good horse sense.

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Friday, January 20, 2023

Political Suckers Of Bollywood

Hollywood is known to be largely Leftist Fiberals. The Lefties often bully those who are not in their Tabela and even covertly push artists into the boycott zone. This is not new. Prominent Senator from the Republican party, Joseph McCarthy and his Committee hounded many suspected Commies in the US including those in Hollywood. Many artists from Hollywood faced his wrath and even prosecuted for Contempt of Congress. As things got worse, there was a wide call to boycott the “Reds” of Hollywood and elsewhere during the period of McCarthyism from late 1940s to early 50s. This is a story I had narrated earlier in “Bollywood Sleepers”:

Not all of McCarthy’s accusations and hounding were fair. However, Bollywood is pretty similar in its Commie filth and its Islamist agenda. Bollywood is anti-Hindu, vulgar, extremely pro-Pakistan and glorifies Islamic terrorists while portraying Hindus as evil terrorists. This is a reason why Hindus must not only shun Bollywood but treat them as pariahs and permanently boycott them unless they stop abusing Hinduism, Hindus and Hindu Gods. It should not stop no matter what a Bollywood sucker like PM Narendra Modi thinks or says to his party coolies.

There are many statements and actions of Modi in the past that I have overlooked as aberrations. Even his prancing around with Thookiyas of Bollywood was dismissed as just gentle indulgence. But his character has unraveled slowly over his constant neglect of Hindus and their lives, sucking up to Muslims and new groupings like Bohras and Pasmanda Muslims for special attention and ignoring the consistent anti-Hinduness of Bollywood. Most policies of Modi relating to humans are caste-based, religion-based with excessive crawling for Muslims and Sikhs. Considering he grew up with some Abbas and has a Pakistani sister, one can understand his Thookism. Being from the Ghanchi community Modi has more in common with his Muslim counterparts than any other Gujarati community. This is one among many reasons Modi loves and sucks up to Bollywood – partly for his fascination with drama and theatre and partly out of his lust for lipstick and, of course, Bollywood money for the party.

Modi is a man who cries for Shabana Azmi’s ankle but doesn’t shed one tear for hundreds of Hindus killed under his watch. I call him “Raja Babu” the man who changes costumes to become any known actor or celeb. Modi is as much an actor as any of his beloved Thookiyas of Bollywood. They hate Hindus as much as Modi does. Count another profit for him. It is not just BJP; all political parties are coolies of Bollywood or Kollywood or Mollywood depending on their power positions. Many depreciated actors have turned to politics too.

The Bollywood mafia is made up of a few family-run studios and production houses and a few big Islamic stars. This mafia operated exactly like the 5 major mafia families of New York. Outsiders were not allowed to enter Bollywood mainstream. There are cases like Sushant Singh, Nitin Mukesh or Kangana Ranaut who were constantly throttled. Even a guy like Hrithik Roshan was mostly reduced to movies made by his father. Bollywood is a mafia, was funded by the underworld mafia and if you don’t play to their tunes you could even be killed like that T-Series guy Gulshan Kumar. It is Sushma Swaraj as I&B minister under AB Vajpayee govt that gave Bollywood recognition as an industry to help producers get legitimate financing. But once you taste crime-money, nothing else is going to taste sweeter. The Gambino or Genovese or Corleone families didn’t depend on banks for money except for laundering it.

Before the BJP govt took charge in UP and Yogi became the CM, the Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav not only romanced Bollywood but had special programs where Bollywood mujra dancers were called to perform and paid extraordinary money like 30 crores for one Saifai event. As if that wasn’t enough, Yadav had a scheme that paid stupid stipend money to rich cricketers and Bollywoodias as if they are beggars outside a masjid. While this happened, the BJP guys trashed Yadav and mocked these silly acts as if the BJP guys were washed in pure milk from the Tabelas of Jogeshwari and Goregaon in Mumbai:

The SP has been out of power for over six years. Yogi and the BJP have been winning UP handsomely for the last two elections. If Yadav can do mujras for Bollywoodias, Yogi can dance even better. So, you might wonder why Suneil Shetty made an appeal to Yogi to ask PM to stop the Bollywood boycott campaigns. This was during a meeting on January 7. And why should Shetty be meeting Yogi to vent Bollywood frustrations and why should Modi bully his own party members to not trash Bollywood? Well, Yogi is building a massive film city to suck up better to Bollywoodias and other movie makers. Here is his elaborate plan over 1000 acres. For all the nonsense of Modi’s “Soshit, Vanchit, Peedit” etc, a State govt by BJP wants to suck up to Bollywood and invest in infrastructure for them. While this entire lipstick will go into the gutter and Bollywood will not buy into it, why should a govt build something for a corrupt business? The only answer you can estimate is flow of illegitimate money to the party coffers at taxpayer cost (with which such film city is built) because Bollywood runs entirely of Hawala money and dubious finances:

Mumbai became the den of film production because the Punjabi refugees settled there and the pioneers of Indian cinema happened to be from Mumbai. The infrastructure for movies in Mumbai has been built over 90 years or so. It’s not just studios and producers, there are other vendors for artwork, costumes, editing studios, standardized music producers and, of course, the underworld mafia funding. What Yogi is doing in UP is just a fun park getaway for some stray movie-makers and UP is not exactly an attractive destination for all the peripheral suppliers for a movie industry. Bollywood wasn’t built by govt. Hollywood wasn’t built by govt. Tollywood or Kollywood weren’t built by govt. So, govts are usually a terrible failures at most things want to build a fruit and vegetable park for movies by sucking up like coolies to Bollywood. Therein lies the whole cause of Modi, Yogi and the BJP sucking up to Bollywood:

Consequent to these events, film city, and Hindus threatening to boycott Bollywood movies and the failure of big-money, big-star movies like “Lal Singh Chadda” or “Prithviraj” and successes mostly coming from Southern movie studios, Raja Babu Narendra Modi is naturally upset. The entire PMship of Modi has a lot to do with acting. Lights, slow motion promos, lipstick, makeup, camera-coolieness, pushing people out of the frame when a camera is around are all hallmarks of a village bumpkin too obsessed with his filmy life. Plus, add the fact that Bollywoodias may be supplying covert money to the party will result in such bullying by a despot as asking his members not to trash Bollywood movies and result in more boycotts and failures:

In addition to all the agenda driven crawling for Bollywood, it should be borne in mind that Bollywood movies being mostly in Hindi caters to the biggest market for BJP – the cow-belt states like UP, Rajasthan, MP, Bihar. An association with movie stars and promoting their movies may help BJP as the public associates Modi with stars in selfies and ministers at movies and film awards as a reflection of their own liking. The movies in other languages hardly have any impact on BJP’s fortunes and so they don’t have much association with Tamil, Kannada, Telugu or Bengali movies.

Bollywood is garbage and a river of filth flowing through your digital devices and theatres. The talent is rare as are decent, good movies. The fact that Bollywood is an Islamist den and an anti-Hindu mafia is nothing but poison for any Hindu family and particularly young Hindu girls and boys. Bollywood is mental terrorism against Hindus. While other terrorists kill the body, Bollywood is a terrorism that kills your brains. The newer movies of Bollywood more or less have turned actresses into semi-strip club dancers and nothing more. The propaganda is to lure more Hindu girls into love jihad type behaviour, destroy Hinduness and values of Hindu culture and overt and covert abuse of Hinduism itself. All of this anti-Hinduness matches perfectly with Modi’s agenda – Destroy Hindu culture. Thus, the despot talks like a bully on what one should think, what one should comment:

Bollywood is nothing but “Mental Terrorism” against Hindus and only uneducated, unaware Hindus will pay for abuse of their own culture and poison their own children. I have written earlier that Arnab Goswami was sacked from Timesnow because of the Bollywood mafia of Karan Johar. Also read why Hindus must continue to boycott Bollywood and their filthy, anti-Hindu propaganda and “Shun Bollywood filth”. Do not pay for your own destruction. The Thookiya agenda of Bollywood is a perfect mirror of Modi’s own agenda which the Muslim Clerics and Pasmandlis now welcome.

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