Party alleges misuse of public savings, claiming nearly ₹33,000 cr. is invested in the Adani Group. It reiterates the demand for Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation into ‘Modani MegaScam’.
No immediate response from the Adani Group or the government on Congress’s allegations.
The Congress on Saturday demanded an inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament into what it described as a “disturbing misuse” of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) funds to benefit the Adani Group.
The party alleged that officials of the Union Ministry of Finance and the NITI Aayog pushed through a proposal in May to invest nearly ₹33,000 crore of the LIC’s funds in the Adani Group to “signal confidence” in the conglomerate, and “encourage participation from other investors”.
The allegations follow an exposé in The Washington Post, which cited internal documents to report how the LIC invested money in the Adani Group after a U.S. court had indicted business tycoon Gautam Adani in a bribery allegations case.
There was no immediate response from the Adani Group or the government on the Congress’s allegations.
‘Close friends’
However, referring to The Washington Post’s report, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “squandering” the hard-earned money of 30 crore LIC policyholders.
“The real beneficiaries of Direct Benefits Transfer are not the common people of India but rather Mr. Modi’s close friends. Does a common salaried middle class person, who saves every penny to pay the LIC premium, even know that Mr. Modi is using his hard-earned savings to bail out Adani? Isn’t this a breach of trust? Isn’t this looting?” Mr. Kharge said in a post on X.
The move amounted to using public money to bail out a private business house facing “serious allegations of criminality”, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said in a statement. “Under whose pressure did government officials decide their job was to rescue a private company? Is this not a textbook case of ‘mobile phone banking’?” he asked.
Mr. Ramesh cited internal documents reported in the media. The investments led to losses for the LIC, including a ₹7,850 crore fall in just four hours of trading on September 21, 2024, following the indictment of Mr. Adani and seven associates in the U.S., he said. The business tycoon has been accused by U.S. authorities of a ₹2,000 crore bribery scheme related to solar power contracts, he added.
‘Need for investigation’
The Congress reiterated its long-standing demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani matter, which it first raised through its ‘Hum Adani ke Hain Kaun’ (‘who are we to Adani’) campaign.
“As a first step, the PAC should investigate how LIC was forced to invest in Adani Group companies. That will be well within its powers,” Mr. Ramesh said.
He alleged the Modi government had “refused for nearly a year” to serve a summons from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to the Adani Group, which he described as “the Prime Minister’s most favoured business conglomerate”.
Calling it the “Modani MegaScam”, Mr. Ramesh said the issue went beyond the LIC’s investment, and included alleged misuse of Central agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation, and the Income Tax Department to pressure private firms into selling assets to the Adani Group.
