PAC to investigate allegations against SEBI Chief Madhabi Puri Buch: Reports
New Delhi: As per reports, the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will be investigating allegations against Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch. A possible summons for Buch may be issued later this month, as reported by the Economic Times.
The investigation comes after several PAC members demanded an inquiry during the committee’s first meeting on August 29. The PAC, led by Congress leader KC Venugopal, includes members from both the NDA and the opposition's INDIA bloc.
While the agenda item for the meeting did not specifically name SEBI or its chief, it was broadly listed as a "Performance review of regulatory bodies established by an act of parliament." Unnamed sources have stated that the inquiry is linked to recent allegations against Buch, including a conflict of interest in SEBI's investigation into the Hindenburg Research allegations against the Adani Group. Additionally, SEBI employees have lodged a complaint with the finance ministry regarding a "toxic work culture" at the regulator.
Madhabi Puri Buch has denied any wrongdoing, and SEBI has refuted the employees' claims, suggesting that "external elements" might be involved in the complaints, which they described as "misplaced."
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
