Congress to PM Modi: Were LIC, SBI told to invest in FPO to bail out Adani?
Continuing to pressure the government over the Adani issue, the Congress asked on Saturday (February 18) whether LIC and SBI were instructed to invest in the Adani Enterprises FPO despite a drastic fall in its share price following the Hindenburg Research report.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh has posed a set of three questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of the party’s “Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun” series and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his silence on the issue.
LIC, SBI investments
आज महाशिवरात्रि है और "HAHK – हम अडानी के हैं कौन" श्रृंखला का तेरहवां दिन भी। ये हैं हमारे तीन सवाल।
आज तो चुप्पी तोड़िए प्रधानमंत्री जी! pic.twitter.com/2vsxRJsgcM
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) February 18, 2023
Ramesh claimed that among the anchor investors in the Adani Enterprises follow-on public offering (FPO) were the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which bid Rs 299 crore, State Bank of India (SBI) Employees’ Pension Fund, which bid Rs 99 crore, and SBI Life Insurance Company, which bid Rs 125 crore.
“These publicly owned institutions participated in the FPO even though the market price had dropped far below the issue price and that both LIC and SBI already owned large chunks of Adani Group equity. Were instructions issued to LIC and SBI to deploy the savings of crores of Indians to bail out the Adani Group once again?” he stated.
Posting the questions in Hindi, Ramesh tweeted, “Today is Mahashivaratri and the 13th day of HAHK (Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun) series. Here are our three questions. Break your silence today, Prime Minister)!” Under the HAHK series, the Congress has been posing questions to the government on the Adani issue.
Also read: Why can’t govt set up JPC on Adani issue, asks Congress
Congress’ questions
In its latest set of questions to the PM, the Congress has asked, “Is it true that a high-profile Union minister with longstanding business links made personal calls to five or 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 has also asked whether the businesses 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,” the party has asked.
Also read: Modi govt cannot run away from questions saying ‘Hum Adani ke hain kaun?’: Congress
The Hindenburg row
Recently, Adani Group stocks had taken a beating on the bourses after the Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share-price manipulation, against the business conglomerate.
The Gautam Adani-led group has dismissed the charges as lies, saying it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.
The Congress has demanded a joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Adani issue. The opposition party also stalled proceedings of both Houses of Parliament during the first part of the Budget Session.
(With agency inputs)
