As value of LIC investment in Adani Group stocks falls, BRS MLC Kavitha slams Centre for its silence

She also demanded to know what the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or the CBI were doing even when a scam of this magnitude had broken out.

ByRaj Rayasam

Published Feb 25, 2023 | 1:20 PMUpdatedFeb 25, 2023 | 1:20 PM

Kavitha said it was "very unbecoming" of the Centre to play with the people's hard-earned money. (Wikimedia Commons)

BRS MLC Kavitha Kalvakuntla on Saturday, 25 February, stepped up her targeting of the Narendra Modi government, seeking an explanation from the Centre as to why it was remaining a mute spectator when the value of LIC’s investment in the Adani group of companies was steadily plummeting.

The BRS leader questioned whether the BJP dispensation at the Centre was concerned at all about the LIC losing 11 percent on its purchase value of Adani and said that it was “very unbecoming” of the Union government to play with the people’s hard-earned money.

Kavitha wanted to know what answer Prime Minister Modi has for the middle-class families who had invested their money in LIC stocks.

She wondered why the government was not showing any interest in ordering an inquiry into the allegations of stock manipulation, among others, in the Adani group of companies, whose market cap has crashed by ₹12 lakh crore ever since the release of the Hindenburg report.

She demanded to know what the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or the CBI were doing even when a scam of this magnitude had broken out. She asked whether the two investigation agencies were meant for only political witch-hunts.

Also Read: Adani crisis: Kavitha questions Modi’s plan to bail out investors

‘Assemble a JPC’

She reminded Modi that after the Hindenburg report became public, the BRS had been demanding a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).

Had the government heeded its advice immediately after the scam broke out, the people would not have suffered as much loss as they did in the subsequent days.

The BRS leader said that it was time that the Centre woke up and took steps to ensure that people do not suffer any further losses by constituting a JPC to probe the muddle.

She urged Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman and SEBI to initiate recovery measures and go to the rescue of the millions of investors and dependent households who are already bearing the brunt of the scam.