New Delhi: Amidst the opposition backlash in the parliament against the Union government’s silence on alleged stock manipulation by the Adani group, the Congress decided to pose three questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi every day on the purported financial scandal.
The party’s decision to intensify its “Hum Adani Ke Hai Kaun (Who are we to Adani)” campaign that has questioned the business group’s close links with the Narendra Modi government, the Congress’s chief spokesperson Jairam Ramesh tweeted to say that that the Prime Minister’s “silence is not just eloquent but also deafening”. Congress intensifies Hum Adani Ke Hai Kaun
While appealing to Modi to end his silence, he posted the first three questions on the Adani scandal on Monday. “Chuppi Todiye Pradhan Mantriji,” he said. Congress intensifies Hum Adani Ke Hai Kaun
Over the last week, a report by the US-based short-selling firm Hindenberg Research alleged that the Adani group may have committed fraud and manipulated its stocks through round-tripping to increase its valuation.
Ever since, the Congress and other opposition parties have been demanding a discussion in the parliament, only to be snubbed by the Union government. Since the Adani group is known to be a close associate of the Prime Minister and his government, its owner Gautam Adani has been at the receiving end of opposition barbs for some years.
The group’s expansion into new sectors, its manifold increase in worth over the last eight years, as well as the group becoming the most-preferred business house to corner a majority of the government’s development projects has drawn criticism from the opposition parties. They have sought to present the association between the group and the government as a striking example of the Modi government’s alleged “crony capitalism”.
The Hindenburg report that has brought down the Adani group’s value by billions has come as a shot in the arm of the opposition, which has said that the Adani ‘bubble’ was allowed to expand because of the government’s laxity and favouritism.
The Congress’s questions to the Prime Minister centred around the financial prudence behind his government’s decision to pump the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and the State Bank of India (SBI) – both public sector companies – money in the Adani group. The opposition parties have already been protesting against the government’s decision to allow the public sector companies to invest in the Adani group.
“Your government has a track record of bailing out failing disinvestments such as IDBI Bank, New India Assurance and General Insurance Corporation using LIC funds. It’s one thing to bail out public sector companies and quite another to use the savings of Rs 30 crore loyal policyholders to enrich your friends. How did LIC make such a heavy allocation to the risky Adani Group that even private fund managers had steered clear of,” the Congress asked.
“Is it not the duty of the government to ensure that vital public sector financial institutions are more conservative in their investments than their private sector counterparts? Or was this another case of your ‘Mann Ki Banking’ to benefit your cronies,” the first question read.
Secondly, it asked whether the Prime Minister’s Office or the Union finance ministry took note of the allegations against the Adani group and “raise concerns” around them.
“The allegations of fraud and money laundering against the Adani Group have been known for some time. There have been many questions over who are the ultimate beneficial owners of major funds investing in the Adani Group. There have been as many as four major fraud investigations including one by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) into the true ownership of its offshore investors. Given this knowledge, did anyone in the PMO, Ministry of Finance Or the LIC itself raise any concerns about these questionable investments? Were such concerns overruled and, if so, by whom?” the second question read.
Thirdly, the party asked what the government was doing to assure “the 34 lakh retail shareholders of the LIC” that their investments are safe.
“After the first selloff following the Hindenburg allegations, the value of Adani Group stocks held by LIC fell by $32,000 crore, bringing the value of those holdings to <56,142 crore on 27 January 2023 by LIC’s own admission. Since then several Adani infrastructure stocks have further crashed by another 50%,” it said.
“Will you share the true extent of LIC’s losses from its Adani investments after 24 January? The listed price of LIC itself has fallen by 14% in the last two weeks compared with a dip of 2% in the Nifty50 index. As LIC’s misguided Adani investments are eroding the confidence of its 34 lakh retail shareholders, What steps will you take to ease their concerns,” the third question said.
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