Ramesh now questions Centre on 'LIC's misguided Adani investments'

New Delhi [India], February 7 : Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday posed three fresh questions to the BJP-led central government amid the Hindenburg-Adani row.
The questions were raised during the Congress's nationwider 'Hum Adani Ke Hain Kaun' campaign.
The Congress Rajya Sabha MP said his party has decided to ask three questions to the Centre amid its 'loud silence' over the Adani row.
In another letter to PM Modi, the Congress leader voiced concerns over the shareholders of the largest insurance company, Life Insurance Corporation of India, in the wake of the controversy.
"As LIC's misguided Adani investments are eroding the confidence of its 34 lakh retail shareholders, what steps will you [PM Modi] take to ease their concerns?" Ramesh wrote.
"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 30 crore loyal policy-holders to enrich your friends," he added.
He asked why the LIC made such a huge allocation to the Adani Group when even private fund managers had steered clear of it.
"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?" Ramesh wrote.
"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 Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Finance Or the LIC itself raise any concerns about these questionable investments? Were such concerns overruled and, if so, by whom?" he wrote further.
Questioning LIC's significant investment in the Adani Group, he asked the government to come clean on what steps were being taken to ease the concerns of the shareholders of the public insurance company.
"After the first selloff following the Hindenburg allegations, the value of Adani Group stocks held by LIC fell by Rs32,000 crores, bringing the value of those holdings to Rs56,142 crores on 27 January 2023 by LIC's own admission. Since then several Adani infrastructure stocks have further crashed by another 50 per cent. Will you share the true extent of LIC's losses from its Adani investments after 24 January?" the letter read.
"The listed price of LIC itself has fallen by 14 per cent in the last two weeks compared with a dip of 2 per cent 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?" it stated.