“It’s disheartening to see Madhabi Puri Buch, head of SEBI, being cornered despite her strong moral values and integrity. Diplomacy may not be her strength, and it seems she’s made some enemies because of it. However, I’m confident she’ll rise above it all and come out stronger,” Goenka tweeted.
Earlier in the day, scores of disgruntled Sebi employees had gathered around the headquarters of the markets regulator in Mumbai and staged a silent protest demanding the withdrawal of Wednesday’s statement blaming “external forces” for the protest and also sought the resignation of their boss Madhabi Puri Buch.
After The Economic Times reported that Sebi officials made an unprecedented complaint to the finance ministry last month and accused the top leadership of fostering a toxic work culture, the regulator issued a press release on Wednesday evening saying the staff were being misguided by external elements regarding HRA (house rent allowance) matters with intent to target credibility of Sebi and its leadership.
This angered the protesting employees further to take the rare step of staging a protest outside their office building and under media glare.”This is very strange. Writing a letter is one thing and coming out to protest is another thing. The timing of their letter to the finance ministry and now this protest indicate that there could be someone instigating them,” Shriram Subramanian of proxy advisory firm InGovern Research told ETMarkets.In a press release issued on Wednesday evening, Sebi said employees, who were demanding a 55% hike in HRA, twisted the narrative to make it a “work culture” issue after their earlier protest yielded no result.Back in March, Buch had called herself “Unilever wife” at a public forum while explaining how she is working on making sachetisation of mutual funds with Rs 250 SIP viable. Her husband Dhaval Buch worked in HUL and Unilever globally for 35 years before joining Blackstone.
Hindenburg spotted a connection. “During Dhaval Buch’s time as an advisor to Blackstone, Sebi has proposed, approved and facilitated major REIT regulations changes. These include 7 consultation papers, 3 consolidated updates, 2 new regulatory frameworks and nomination rights for units, specifically benefiting private equity firms like Blackstone,” it said.
The short-seller’s major allegation against the Buchs has been around investing in offshore funds linked to the Adanis. All parties have denied the charges.
Following this, on Monday, Indian National Congress (INC) party spokesperson Pawan Khera alleged that Buch continued to draw a salary from ICICI Bank while she was a member of SEBI, which, according to him, represents a serious breach of ethics and accountability in public service.
Joining other rebels, Zee group patriarch Subhash Chandra has also levelled several allegations against the Sebi chief and even called her “corrupt”.
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