Prime Minister Narendra Modi sidestepped a question on industrialist Gautam Adani, calling it a matter concerning "individuals", at a joint news conference with US President Donald Trump in Washington DC on Thursday.

A US journalist asked both Trump and Modi if they had spoken about “Gautam Adani, one of the wealthiest men in Asia and perceived as an ally of PM Modi”.

The question to the Prime Minister was, “Have you asked the President to take action on that case”, the allusion being clearly to US bribery charges against the Adani group.

Modi replied: “Firstly, India is a democratic country and our culture is of vasudhaiva kutumbakam. We consider the whole world to be our family. I consider every Indian my own.”

“Vasudhaiva kutumbakam,” a saying from the Mahopanishad that means “the whole world is a family”, has been used as a tagline for Modi’s foreign policy.

“Secondly,” Modi said, looking flustered and gesturing repeatedly at the reporter with an open palm, “on such matters concerning individuals, the leaders of two countries do not meet, sit or talk.”

On Wednesday, a day before Modi’s arrival in the US, Trump had paused the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which had been used to launch a bribery investigation against the Adani group. The FCPA prohibits companies that operate in the US from bribing foreign government officials to secure business deals.

The FCPA has been “abused in a manner that harms the interests of the United States”, Trump’s executive order said, adding that its enforcement was impeding foreign policy objectives.

INDIA bloc leaders mocked Modi for evading the question on Adani on US soil.

Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “If you ask questions in the country, there is silence. If you ask abroad, it is a personal matter! Even in America, Modi Ji covered up Adani Ji’s corruption! When filling a friend’s pocket is ‘nation building’ for Modiji, then taking bribes and looting the nation’s wealth becomes a ‘personal matter’.”

In a post on X, Trinamool MP Saket Gokhale said: “Finally! PM Modi is forced to do a press conference in the US — something he hasn’t done in India in 11 years.

“This is why he never takes press questions in India. This is why his ‘interviews’ in India are fully scripted. He’s so angry & flustered.”

Another Trinamool MP, Sagarika Ghose, tweeted: “Journalist asks a question about Adani, the non-biological @narendramodi replies with an answer on global family! Modi government is a tragedy. Or is it a comedy.”

The Aam Aadmi Party said: “It is extremely reprehensible and shameful that the PM has termed Adani’s misdeed of looting the country’s wealth and distributing bribes as a personal matter.”

Last November, US prosecutors had accused Gautam Adani, along with his nephew Sagar Adani, of bribing Indian officials and charged him with fraud. His company has called these claims “baseless” and taken the unusual step of mounting a legal challenge.

The department of justice under then President Joe Biden charged the Adani group with being part of a scheme to pay over $250 million (₹2,100 crore) in bribes to Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms relating to solar power contracts.

Adani Green Energy had earlier found itself unable to sell solar power through the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a PSU that helps develop renewable energy projects in India by giving fiscal incentives and serving as an intermediary for power sales to state-owned power distribution companies.

The department of justice said in its indictment, filed before the Eastern District Court of New York, that the bribes became necessary when the SECI was unable to find buyers for the high-priced solar power.

The indictment did not mention the price at which power had been sold to distribution companies in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Jammu and Kashmir.

US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission filed a separate complaint on the bribery scandal in which it named just two defendants: Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani.

The regulator said they were involved in “paying or promising to pay the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars” in bribes to Indian government officials to secure their commitment to purchasing power at above-market rates that would benefit Adani Green Energy and Azure Power, a renewable energy producer in India.