INDIA: Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien opposed the ruling party’s demand for an apology from Congress’s Rahul Gandhi over his controversial statement in the UK. He further brought everyone’s attention to the issue of the Adani-Hindenburg row, which is affecting the shares of the government companies.
Derek, during a press conference, raised questions about the central probe agencies and asked why they were not initiating a proper investigation of the Adani group when serious allegations are made by the US short seller Hindenburg Research. Derek said, “What is stopping the CBI and ED, who work overtime when it comes to opposition leaders?”
Hindenburg’s allegations of financial fraud and stock manipulation affected the current valuation of the Adani Group. The main problem that arose after that was even worse. The government-run institutions witnessed a huge fall in their shares as they were linked to the controversy.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opted for his Twitter account and awakened the government by writing, “LIC is losing about Rs 1,000 crore every day in its investments due to the fall in Adani Group’s shares. The country is asking under whose pressure LIC-SBI invested public money in Adani.”
Meanwhile, Finance Secretary TV Somanathan has said that the “SBI and LIC’s exposure to any given company is well below the level where it should be a worry to any investor. It is minuscule.”
“The destiny of one company will have little impact on any of these institutions, thus there is little need for depositors, policyholders, or investors in any of the nationalized banks or insurance companies to be concerned,” he added.
Serious allegations are made against SBI and LIC that they were “forced” to make investments to save the Adani Group. Now, the entire Adani case is headed by retired judge Abhay Manohar Sapre and will include veteran bankers KV Kamath and OP Bhat, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, and retired Justice JP Devdhar, as directed by the court.
However, the chairperson of any Joint Parliamentary Committee is a BJP member, so MP Derek O’Brien said, “We looked at the history of the JPC for the last 12 JPCs. It is putting the matter under the carpet.”
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