Congress slams govt. over fall in LIC’s market capitalisation

Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh. File
| Photo Credit: ANI

As the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) marked one year since listing its shares on the stock exchanges, the Congress on May 17 attacked the Modi Government over the fall in the firm’s market capitalisation.

The country’s largest insurer LIC had this day last year listed its shares on the NSE and the BSE, and Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh sought to link the decline in the market cap of the firm to the investment in Adani companies, a charge rejected by the BJP which accused him of misleading people with “half information”.

In a tweet, Mr. Ramesh said, “Exactly a year ago today, LIC was listed in the stock market. Its market capitalisation then stood at ₹5.48 lakh crore. Today, this is down to ₹3.59 lakh crore a fall of a whopping 35%!” “There is only one reason for this steep fall Modani. In the process, lakhs and lakhs of policyholders have taken a serious hit,” he said and tagged a screenshot of a media report which claimed that LIC share has wiped out ₹1.9 lakh crore since listing.

The BJP hit back at Mr. Ramesh with the saffron party’s Information Technology department head Amit Malviya saying that the LIC’s exposure in Adani Group was less than 1%.

The Congress has been attacking the government over the fall in the value of LIC’s holdings in the Adani Group and had asked who “forced” this pillar of India’s financial system to take such a  risky exposure to the conglomerate.

The Congress has been demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the allegations against the Adani Group by U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research. The Adani Group has dismissed the allegations as baseless.