Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday playfully lauded Gautam Adani for building a port in Kerala good enough to make Gujarat envious, breaking his long silence on the controversial industrialist accused of corruption by US authorities, an American short seller and India’s Opposition.

Modi’s comments came as he commissioned the ₹8,686-crore Vizhinjam sea port near Thiruvananthapuram, a public-private partnership with the Kerala government.

He cited how the state’s “communist” port minister had referred to Adani as “our partner”, and went on to claim this reflected a “changed India”.

Modi also baited the Congress leadership. He described chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan as a “pillar” of the INDIA bloc — a veiled snub to Rahul Gandhi — and claimed the presence at the event of recalcitrant Congress MP Shashi Tharoor would give “sleepless nights” to many.

However, it was his comments on Adani, a man Rahul wants arrested, that formed the highlight of the event.

The Prime Minister had not mentioned Adani in public since US short seller Hindenburg Research accused the billionaire’s business conglomerate in January 2023 of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud”.

Rahul, who uses the term “Modani” to emphasise Modi’s perceived friendship with Adani, flagged these accusations to run a campaign against the Prime Minister.

Last November, the US department of justice accused Adani of orchestrating a $250m bribery scheme to win contracts for his renewable energy company in India, and concealing it to raise money in America.

During Modi’s US visit in mid-February this year, a clearly defensive Prime Minister had at a joint news conference with President Donald Trump sidestepped a journalist’s question on whether they had discussed Adani.

“Every Indian is family to me. Such individual matters are not discussed between world leaders,” Modi had shot back, looking and sounding annoyed.

However, the day before Modi’s arrival in the US, Trump suspended for six months the Foreign Practices Corruption Act, 1976, which had fuelled the bribery investigation against the Adani group.

Rahul had then said that Adani should be in jail and that the BJP government was protecting him.

On Friday, Modi appeared to stray from his prepared speech to praise Adani, taking the cue from Kerala port minister V.N. Vasavan’s reference to the businessman as
“our partner”.

“Perhaps those in the media would have noted one thing,” the Prime Minister said. “When our port minister was speaking, he said Adani was ‘our government’s partner’. This is a minister of a communist government speaking. For the private sector. This is the changed India.”

Appearing in the mood for light banter, he went on: “Adani has been running a port in Gujarat (Mundra port) for 30 years. But he has not created in Gujarat a port such as this one in Vizhinjam. You (Adani) will have to face the anger of the people in Gujarat.”

Modi then turned to look at Pinarayi and said he would like to tell him something.

“You are one of the strongest pillars of the INDIA bloc. Shashi Tharoor, too, is here. And this day’s event has caused sleepless nights for many,” he said.

But much to the embarrassment of Pinarayi and the other CPM leaders present, the Malayalam translator Pallipuram Jayakumar, a teacher by profession, remained mum for a few seconds, appearing not to have caught what Modi had said.

When Modi realised that the translator had not heard or understood him properly, he quipped: “The message has gone wherever it has to go.”

(After the state BJP complained against the translator, Jayakumar said the audio quality had been poor and insisted he was a BJP loyalist, invited by the Left government to translate Modi’s speech.)

The “sleepless nights” dig seemed an allusion to the Congress’s nervousness about four-time Thiruvananthapuram MP Tharoor, an author and former UN diplomat once deemed a prize catch for the party.

Tharoor has faced relentless criticism from within the party because of his praise of Kerala’s Left government and support for several of Modi’s decisions.

Apparently fed up of the hostility, Tharoor had sent a blunt message to the Congress last February, saying if the party didn’t want him, he had other fish to fry. He had made it clear he was not inclined to join any other party.

Since then, the MP has praised Modi’s diplomatic approach to the Russia-Ukraine war and has been accused by party colleagues of being “soft” on the BJP following the Pahalgam massacre.

Tharoor, who received Modi on his arrival on Thursday, posted a message on X saying: “Despite delays at the dysfunctional Delhi airport, managed to land in Thiruvananthapuram in time to receive Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his arrival in my constituency. Looking forward to his officially commissioning Vizhinjam port, a project I have been proud to have been involved with since its inception.”

Modi’s “sleepless nights” jibe appeared to sting the Congress.

“It would be the Prime Minister who would have sleepless nights, not the INDIA bloc. We will sleep peacefully, but it’s going to be difficult for the PM to sleep,” Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal told the media in Delhi.

At the Vizhinjam commissioning event, port minister Vasavan compared Pinarayi’s zeal to that of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Pinarayi, in his speech, said his government had spent the lion’s share of funds for the project.

“And thus we have won this too. The Vizhinjam project became fruitful because of this government’s political will and determination,” he told the gathered thousands.

The Kerala government has contributed ₹5,370.86 crore of the total ₹8,686-crore project cost; the Adani group has invested ₹2,497 crore and the Centre has provided ₹818 crore, a PTI report said.

Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary (communication), took to X to highlight that his party too deserved some of the credit for the port.

“As the PM dedicates Vizhinjam Port to the nation today, my mind goes back to June 13, 2011, when the then (Congress) CM of Kerala, Oommen Chandy and the Thiruvananthapuram MP Dr Shashi Tharoor invited me to visit the site to set the ball rolling,” he posted.

The Kerala leader of the Opposition, Congress veteran V.D. Satheesan, stayed away from the event because of a belated invite. His name had not been on the original programme list.