Proceedings at both the Houses of Parliament got adjourned for the third straight day on Monday without transacting any business as an united opposition continued to raise slogans against “Adani Sarkar” and continued to press their demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe on the Adani-Hindenburg saga, which wiped out $118 billion or more than half of the combined market value of ten Adani Group stocks.

Congress, which intensified its nationwide campaign against the government on this issue, alleged on Monday that the Modi-led government was doing its best to ensure that no discussion takes place in Parliament regarding the Adani Group’s rout.

“I have been raising this issue for last two years and I would want this issue to now be discussed in Parliament threadbare (doodh Ka doodh paani ka paani ho jaye). Lakhs of crore of corruption has happened and India’s infrastructure has been captured.There is a need for discussion on this. So that the country can know as to who is the real power that is backing or supporting Adani”, Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP, told reporters here.

He asserted that Government does not want a discussion. and is “afraid to have it”, Gandhi added. Gandhi said that there is a reason as to why the government does not want to have a discussion on this and “you know why”.

 

Congress’ poser to PM

Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh in a statement raised three questions for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Hum Adani Ke Hain Kaun)-2, so to speak).

In his first question, Ramesh wanted to know as to how did LIC make such a heavy allocation to the risky Adani Group that even private fund managers had steered clear of? 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?

For the second question, Ramesh highlighted 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?

Lastly, will the Prime Minister share the true extent of LIC’s losses from its Adani investments after January 24? 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?

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