Congressman and General Secretary Jairam Ramesh | Photo credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
The Congress on Saturday raised serious questions over reports of systematic misuse of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) by the government in favor of the Adani Group and demanded a probe by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said disturbing revelations have just emerged in the media about how the Modani JV systematically misused LIC and the savings of its 30 crore policyholders.
Internal documents reveal that Indian officials drafted and pushed through a proposal in May 2025 to invest around ₹33,000 crore of LIC funds in various Adani Group companies. The reported objectives were to “instill confidence in the Adani Group” and “encourage the participation of other investors,” he added.
“The question arises: under whose pressure did the officials of the Ministry of Finance and NITI Aayog decide that it was their job to bail out a private company that was facing funding problems due to serious allegations of criminality? Isn’t this a textbook example of ‘mobile phone banking’?” Ramesh said.
The Congress party alleged that agencies such as the ED, the CBI and the Income Tax Department were being misused to force other private companies to sell their assets to the Adani Group.
“The entirety of this Modani MegaScam can only be investigated by a Joint Parliamentary Committee of Parliament which the INC has been asking for for almost three years – ever since we published our 100 Question series Hum Adani Ke Hain Kaun (HAHK). As a first step, at least the Parliament PAC should now fully investigate how LIC was literally forced to make investments in the Adani Group. That will be well within its purview. powers,” Ramesh demanded.
The cost of throwing public money at crony firms became clear when LIC suffered a staggering loss of ₹7,850 crore in just four trading hours on September 21, 2024, following the indictment of Gautam Adani and seven of his associates in the US, the senior Congress leader claimed.
“Adani has been accused of orchestrating a bribery scheme worth ₹2,000 crore to secure expensive solar power contracts in India. Modi’s government has refused to issue a US SEC summons to the Prime Minister’s favorite business conglomerate for almost a year,” he added.
The party has alleged that the alliance between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani includes the “rigged” privatization of critical infrastructure facilities such as airports and ports solely for the benefit of the Adani Group.
Diplomatic resources are being misused to channel contracts to the Adani Group in several countries, especially in India’s neighbours, the Congress alleged.
“The import of over-invoiced coal by close Adani associates Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling using a money laundering network of shell companies, which has contributed to sharp increases in electricity prices coming from Adani power plants in Gujarat,” Ramesh said.
Examples of pre-election electricity supply deals at abnormally high prices in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra and the recent allotment of land at ₹1 per acre for a power plant in poll-bound Bihar, he added.
Published on October 25, 2025
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