The Congress on Saturday raised questions at the Narendra Modi government, claiming that the Union finance ministry and the central policy think tank Niti Aayog took steps to save a private company, the Adani Group, and reiterated the demand for a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) into the matter.
The Congress’s charges were based on a report in The Washington Post that claimed Indian officials “drafted and pushed through a proposal in May to steer roughly $3.9 billion in investments to Adani’s businesses from the Life Insurance Corporation of India or LIC – a state-owned entity primarily responsible for providing life insurance to poor and rural families.”
The Post claimed that it had obtained “internal documents” that provided details of the government’s alleged bailout plan for India’s most well-known businessman in the last decade, Gautam Adani.
“The entirety of this Modani Megascam can only be investigated by a Joint Parliamentary Committee that the Congress had been demanding for almost three years – ever since we published our 10-question series,” Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh said in a statement on Saturday.
“As a first step, now at least Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should fully investigate how LIC was literally forced to make investments in the Adani Group. That will be well within its powers.”
He added: “The question arises: under whose pressure did the officials of the ministry of finance and Niti Aayog decide that their job was to bail out a private company facing funding difficulties due to serious allegations of criminality? Is this not a textbook case of “mobile phone banking”? The costs of throwing public money at crony firms become clear when LIC suffered a staggering Rs. 7,850crore loss in just four hours of trading on September 21, 2024, following the indictment of Gautam Adani and seven of his associates in the United States.”
In its report, The Post claimed: “Debt was piling quickly this spring for Gautam Adani – owner of a vast empire of Indian coal mines, airports, seaports and green energy ventures – and the bills were coming due. India’ second richest man, whose net worth hovers around $90 billion, had been charged with bribery and fraud last year by US authorities, and several major American and European banks he had looked to for loans were hesitant to help.”
The same month, according to The Post, Adani’s ports subsidiary was seeking to raise around $585 billion in a bond issue to refinance existing debt. On 30 May, the Adani Group had announced that the bond was financed by a single investor – LIC.
The Post called it “a vivid illustration of Adani’s clout within the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his longtime ally, and of how officials in New Delhi have come to see his empire as central to the country’s economic fortunes.”
Calling the report “disturbing”, Ramesh said, “… the Modani joint venture systematically misused the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and the savings of its 30 crore policyholders. Internal documents reveal that Indian officials drafted and pushed through a proposal to invest about 33,000 crore of LIC funds in various Adani Group companies in May 2025. The reported goals were to “signal confidence in the Adani Group” and to “encourage participation from other investors.”
The Adani Group denied all accusations.
“We categorically deny involvement in any alleged government plans to direct LIC funds,” the Adani Group said in response to questions from The Washington Post.
“LIC invests across multiple corporate groups — and suggesting preferential treatment for Adani is misleading. Moreover, LIC has earned returns from its exposure to our portfolio,” it said.
The company also told The Post that “assertions of undue political favour” were “unfounded” and their growth “predates Modi’s national leadership.”
The Congress was unmoved.
“The Modi government has refused for nearly a year, to serve a US SEC summons to the Prime Minister’s most favoured business conglomerate,” Ramesh said.
On 14 February, addressing a rare press conference with US President Donald Trump at the White House, Modi had appeared irked on being asked if he had discussed the Adani issue with the US President.
“First, India is a democratic country and our culture and our thought, our philosophy is Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam which basically means that the entire world is a family. Every Indian is my own family member. When it comes to such personal matters, two leaders of two countries don’t meet to discuss anything on an individual matter,” Modi had replied in Hindi.
The Congress on Saturday branded the “Modani Megascam” as wide-ranging.
“It encompasses, the misuse of agencies such as the ED, CBI and Income Tax department to force other private companies to sell their assets to Adani Group; Rigged privatisation of critical infrastructure assets such as airports and ports for the benefit of the Adani Group alone; misuse of diplomatic resources to funnel contracts to the Adani Group in various countries, especially India’s neighbourhood,” Ramesh said.
Among other examples the Congress also cited the recent reported decision of the Bihar government to hand over land at a power plant at Re 1 per acre in the poll-bound state.