Recently Gujarati Billionaire Gautam Adani has been in the news for being the alleged ‘largest donor’ for Assam Floods giving a sum amount of ₹11 crores to the controversial CM Relief Fund.  At first glance, such a donation appears to be an act of corporate generosity. But a closer political-economic analysis raises a broader question: who ultimately benefits from recurring floods in Assam? The reason will be given in this article in detail.

From a Marxist perspective, philanthropy is not separate from capitalism—it is merely part of its public relations campaign. A relatively small donation can generate enormous goodwill while leaving untouched the larger economic structures through which wealth is accumulated. For example, as per March, 2026 report of Jalihal S., Assam government might have to pay ₹12,500 Crore to the Adani Group over Five Years for the excess power it consumes. The ₹11 crores paid by Adani to Assam Government is therefore only a fraction of what the Assam Government itself owes to Adani.

One signature move of the NDA Government has been increased disinvestment and sale of national assets and PSUs to private firms, particularly the Gujarati Businessmen like Ambani, Adani, and other handful business families who today control the lifeline of India – the energy sector, the steel industry and everything needed for a country to survive are today dominated by private entities. Within this framework, a crisis like deluge can actually be a blessing-in-disguise for these corporates as the poor peasants facing repeated losses, debt, and displacement cause of floods may be under pressure to sell their land at much cheaper rate so the corporates can gain access to land and resources more easily.

How Corporates Cause Floods in Assam

It is a no-brainer that industrial activities in green belt areas and eco-sensitive can contribute to the occurrence and severity of floods by disrupting the natural ability of the environment to absorb and manage rainfall. The construction of real-estate projects in such sensitive green-belt areas shows us how serious the government is where instead of preventing floods, their policies are only resulting in worsening the already worse situation.

Many factors such as coal mining in geo-sensitive areas, and unchecked exploitation of natural resources directly contribute to climate change and degradation of natural environment. In case of current Assam floods, the coal mining in hilly areas (where Adani Group has significant investments) was directly responsible for the deluge as the excess water was carried downstream due to soil erosion caused in the hilly areas due to irresponsible coal mining.

A warning for the same was already given by Debabrata Saikia in 2019 and again in 2022, but Government didn't listen nor did people vote for him as he lost his election to the corrupt Moyur Borgohain from BJP government. It appears raising issues of working class people is not so popular in a state dominated by counter-revolutionaries and where people only vote in the name of caste and religion. If Government had heeded to Debabrata Saikia's warnings in time and cracked down on the mining industry, Assam might not be in this desperate situation today.

Needless to say the floods have given a good opportunity to the corporates to improve their public image and Adani's PR Campaign of giving ₹11 crores to CM Relief Fund seems to point in the same direction.

Adani's Activities in Assam

We shall go briefly over the Activities of Adani Group in Assam to give the reader a brief idea on what this so-called philanthropy amounts for.

• Oct 08, 2021: Despite Protests, Adani Group Takes Over Guwahati International Airport
• 13 Jun 2025: Locals protest alleged land grab for Adani Group coal-fired power plant in Assam
• 9 July 2025 : Adani project leaves 1,600 families homeless in mega eviction drive in Bilasipara

Clearly the amount of harm that has been done by Adani Group in Assam cannot be compensated by mere ₹11 crores donation to the state government's relief fund (which is itself questionable)

How Corporates benefit from Floods in Assam?

Disasters under capitalism are rarely just humanitarian crises; they also become opportunities for profit. The distribution of polyester Mekhela Sadors manufactured in bulk by factories in Surat, Gujarat, in the name of flood relief and selling Amul Milk from Gujarat (instead of local Purabi brand) illustrates how corporate interests can be woven into the politics of aid. Instead of supporting local weavers and small producers whose livelihoods are themselves devastated by floods, public relief spending is directed toward large-scale industrial manufacturers, allowing capital to extract profit even from catastrophe

What is presented as charity thus also functions as a transfer of public resources into corporate hands while deepening the dependence of affected communities on externally produced commodities. This phenomenon is not new though.

During British colonial rule, famines and natural disasters often became occasions for commercial gain rather than relief. Even amid the devastating Bengal Famine of 1943, grain procurement, speculation, and wartime commercial priorities enriched traders and colonial interests while millions starved. Ambedkar even remarked that that as long as India is poor the Banias will be rich.

Donations vs Capital Accumulation

In the Holy Bible (Mark 12:41-44), we find a story of the poor widow’s offering who just put two copper coins worth only a few cents but Christ declared that “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. For the rest gave out of their surpplus; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had.”

And then we come to the case of Assam where even the CM's own brother who works as a doctor in the Great Britain donated only £31 GBP for Assam Floods. Even a Winter Jacket is more expensive than that in UK.

Meanwhile their fierce enemy Badruddin Ajmal donated ₹2 crores to the worst hit-areas of Upper Assam. The BJP MLA from Jorhat Hitendra Nath Goswami was busy partying abroad when the worst-in-decades flood had struck his constituency. Goswami, Sharma, these are people who have accumulated immense amount of generational wealth over the ages but refuse to give back to the society, unless it benefits them in some way (as in the case of industrialists like Adani)

Charity is not Social Justice

A very big misunderstanding that some people have is that rich people giving away donations willingly is some kind of social justice and not fear of public reprisal or the desire to protect their reputation amongst working-class people. True social justice not about generosity from the rich and powerful but rather bringing the same rich and powerful people into account. A society where these rich people are forced to pay higher cess and the revenue from their taxable wealth goes towards preventing the next crisis is called actual social justice, what we have right now in Assam is flood capitalism, which brings disaster for the poor and opportunity for the rich to get even more richer.

The right question to be asked here is that if crores of rupees can be mobilized after every flood, why can't they be mobilized to prevent the next one? And who really benefits from this cycle?

Why are people forced to depend on donations every year instead of having permanent flood protection, public healthcare, housing, and employment guaranteed by the state?

Why do we need a CM Relief Fund instead of finding real solutions to the problem and building flood-resilient infrastructure? Why every year the same road is dug again and again instead of building an ever-lasting road for once and all? Why are tenders being awarded for an already completed flyover to the relatives of the CM?

These are the questions that youths of Assam should ask. Charity is a temporary relief not social justice. The rich and powerful who are looting Assam have to be brought into account and wealth tax has to be implemented all over India to bring down the rising inequality in the country.

Stop Using Others Pain for your PR Campaign

The Bible tells us — but when you give to the poor and do acts of kindness, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing (Matthew 6:3). Inspite of this we see powerful people like Ananya Birla, Randeep Hooda, Karthik Aryan etc who have been milking this issue to improve their image or come in limelight. As such these are no longer acts of kindness but a display of appearance and using others suffering as a stepping stone for one's own zealous ambitions.

Ananya Birla tried to be a singer but failed miserably. Hooda has not got a single good film since Sarbajit and Karthik is desperate to clear his "pedophile" image. Each one of these people are fulfilling only their own personal self-motives. So their "act of kindess" should be seen for what it really is, an investment which gives them better results than even a PR agency could. It is no different from white celebrities taking photos with African children showing the world how kind the are when just few hours after the photoshoot and they forget their entire existence. This is the reality of the world we are living in.

Conclusion

The debate should not be reduced to choosing between different political parties as the situation was not hunky dory during Congress era either. But certainly the BJP Government has made it worse because it allowed the Gujarati-Bania lobby to enter who previously had no presence in the state. At the same time its philosophy of "government has no business being in business" has made the corporates more powerful than ever before.

So the issue is therefore not whether corporates should donate, but rather how much larger flows of public money, state contracts, and natural resources, goes to shape corporate profits.

A tighter leash is therefore required to keep these corporates (modern feudalists) in check, who quenches their thirst on the blood and sweat of the poor and instead of celebrating charity people should start demanding justice — Justice for our people, our villages, our forests, our natural environments and all that is today being threatened by greedy corporates.