Prime Minister Narendra Modi despite warnings from our country’s top economists not to meddle with one of the ‘Navratna’ companies – the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) allegedly egged on the LIC to invest heavily in his friend Gautam Adani’s ‘con’ empire! Some people say Adani is Modi’s Master, who sends him on foreign tours to promote Adani’s business. This money belongs to the poor and the tax-payers. Some others say Adani and Ambani are Modi’s Masters. Even the airports have been handed over to the masters.
On Saturday, Congress questioned the “silence” of the Union finance minister and probe agencies after LIC and State Bank of India (SBI) seemingly “lost over ₹78,000 crore” in market capitalisation of their shares due to the exposure in the Adani Group. “LIC is public money! Post Hindenburg Report, the value of LIC investment in Adani Group shares have fallen from ₹77,000 Crore to ₹53,000 Crore – a loss of ₹23,500 crores,” Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala pointed out.
The Congress on Sunday intensified its attack further on the BJP-led central government as a scathing report by US short-seller Hindenburg Research negatively impacted shares of Adani Group and the lenders that have exposure to it. With state insurer, LIC putting more money into Gautam Adani’s flagship unit despite facing a notional loss of nearly ₹19,000 crores in two days, the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge mocked at the government and suggested to change the name of Life Insurance Corporation of India to ‘Loot Investment for Cronies.’ Kharge did not name the cronies as the country knows all of them.
The LIC’s investment did not signal its vote of confidence in Gautam Adani but it was due to the undue influence exerted on the LIC that it invested heavily in the Adani Group. Adani is Asia’s richest man, and his ‘Con’ group is facing its toughest test yet after the foreign Hindenburg Research attributed its meteoric rise as “the largest con in corporate history.” It may be mentioned that with over 250 million policy holders across India, LIC is among India’s systemically most important institutions. It is an investor in five Adani companies, with stakes ranging from 1% to 9% that was worth a total of 722.68 billion rupees on January 24, according to Bloomberg.
The ruling Bharat Rashtriya Samithi (BRS) in Telangana opined that the market situation was extremely worrisome and the Centre needs to answer serious questions on the “large exposure” of LIC and SBI to Adani stocks. The Telangana State Municipal Administration, Urban Development and Information Technology Minister K T Rama Rao (KTR), son of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, wondered as to who pushed the country’s largest lender and the largest state insurer to such exposure to Adani Group stocks. KTR’s punching softy indicates the BRS has not ruled out a pre-poll and post-poll alliance with the BJP. Some political analysts and politicians believe that like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the BRS is also the ‘B’ team of the BJP.
The Hindenburg Report has come just before our national budget presentation. It is not just Gautam Adani who is losing stocks heavily but more than that the PM Narendra Modi is losing face and face value! Will PM Modi go away with his ‘Jhola’ after the cascading loss of national wealth? Whether it is the SBI or the LIC, it is the poor man’s money! Where are the CBI, NIA, and ED hiding? There is no judicial activism yet!
