The Congress on Saturday asked the BJP-led central government whether state insurer LIC and India’s largest public sector bank, State Bank of India (SBI), were instructed to invest in Adani Enterprises FPO despite the sharp decline in share price in the aftermath of a scathing report on the conglomerate by US short seller Hindenburg Research. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a statement that Life Insurance Corporation of India, State Bank of India Employees’ Pension Fund, and SBI Life Insurance Company were among the anchor investors in the Adani Enterprises FPO even as the market price had dropped far below the issue price.
“Were instructions issued to LIC and SBI to deploy the savings of crores of Indians to once again bail out the Adani Group?” Jairam Ramesh asked, posing a set of three questions to the government as part of the party’s “Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun” series.
Under the HAHK series, the opposition party has been posing questions to the government on the Adani issue.
Ramesh tweeted, “Mahashivaratri today and along with it here is HAHK (Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun)-13. The 13th set of questions to the PM. Aaj Toh Chuppi Todiye Pradhan Mantriji (Break your silence today, Prime Minister)!”
In its latest set of questions, the Congress asked, “Is it true that a high-profile Union Minister with longstanding commercial links made personal calls to five-six of the most well-known businesspersons on behalf of Gautam Adani and asked them to invest their personal funds in the FPO to save Gautambhai from embarrassment? Does this not represent a conflict of interest worth investigating? Did this Union Minister act on instructions from you?”
The Congress leader also asked if the family offices that were pressured to bail out the Adani FPO given assurances that this was only to save Gautam Adani’s reputation and that the FPO would be subsequently cancelled and the money returned to the investors.
“Is it not a violation of Indian securities regulations to hide this relevant information from most investors and only to share it with a select few? Is it ethical to dupe FPO investors in this way,” he asked.
The opposition parties have been trying to corner the government on the stock manipulation and fraud allegations against Adani Group, given the widely perceived proximity of the beleaguered billionaire with Prime Minister Modi. The Congress has demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Adani issue.
The Gautam Adani-led group has dismissed the charges as lies, saying it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.
