Opaque shadows.

"Corruption primarily involves selfish exercise of powers, which operates in shadows, aided by opaque systems. Transparency is key to breaking this shadowy nexus and forms the basis for effective vigilance mechanism," wrote Secretary, Central Vigilance Commission P Daniel (cvc.gov.in). "Corruption directly vitiates the relationship of the citizen with the state." Now is the time for Mr Daniel to get his teeth into the goings on within the Adani Group, the shadowy Mr Vinod Adani, who is and is not a part of the group, and the opaque systems aiding and abetting Mr Gautam Adani's dizzying rise to the position of the second richest man in the world by earning no less than Rs 1.6 billion every single day for over one year (ET). Perhaps, Mr Daniel can start with this sentence by Yogendra Yadav: "Modani has entered India's political lexicon. Rahul Gandhi's latest tweet adopts this expression, already in vogue in his party's social media campaign, 'Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun', and in parliamentary chorus by the opposition demanding a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee) probe in the Gautam Adani imbroglio." The Print. "Our research, which included downloading and cataloguing the entire Mauritius corporate registry, has uncovered that Vinod Adani, through several associates, manages a vast labyrinth of offshore shell entities," said the Hindenburg report. "We have identified entities that are also surreptitiously controlled by Vinod Adani in Cyprus, the UAE, Singapore, and several Caribbean islands." "Adani's defense: Vinod Adani, brother to the chairman, is not a related party to the group, and there are no disclosable conflicts related to this web of opaque transactions." wrote Hindenburg. Suddenly, the Adani Group discovered Vinod Adani. "Vinod Adani, the little known elder brother of Adani group founder Gautam Adani, is part of the promoter group, the conglomerate has said." Mint. Hindenburg has shed some light on opaque systems, now it is up to our investigators. "The Indian government has now told parliament that it has no data on offshore accounts held by Indians." The Wire. How opaque can it get? Apparently, there is no definition of 'shell companies', so the government is totally hamstrung. But, "In an Independence Day speech on Aug. 15, Modi claimed the move (demonetisation) had unearthed 300,000 shell companies. Following his speech, the ministry of corporate affairs struck off names of 217,239 companies for failing to comply with regulatory requirements." ET. Without definition? In September 2022, "Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman...found fault with the Telangana government for not displaying picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the fair price shops where rice is distributed to the people below poverty line free of cost." HT. Could it be because people prefer to display pictures of gods? Opaque systems, shadowy characters lurking offshore and official flimflam. Definitely worth looking into.