Cong slams govt over fall in LIC's market capitalisation

As the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) marked one year since listing its shares on the stock exchanges, the Congress on Wednesday 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, Ramesh said, ''Exactly a year ago today, LIC was listed in the stock market. Its market capitalisation then stood at Rs 5.48 lakh crore. Today, this is down to Rs 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 Rs 1.9 lakh crore since listing.

The BJP hit back at Ramesh with the saffron party's IT department head Amit Malviya saying that the LIC's exposure in Adani Group is less than 1 per cent.

''LIC has bagged multi-crore profit on Adani stocks. There is no risk to policyholders says LIC Chief. ''Jairam Ramesh, who is known for leaking privileged correspondence to media, to embarrass then PM Manmohan Singh, in whose cabinet he was a minister, is once again misleading people by peddling half information…,'' Malviya said on Twitter and shared a media report that quoted the LIC chief.

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 (JPC) probe into the allegations against the Adani Group by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research. The Adani Group has dismissed the allegations as baseless.