Rahul Gandhi targets Modi, Shah over stock market 'scam', BJP calls allegation baseless

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi leveled several grave accusations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday and called for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) investigation into the stock market crash on June 4.

The former Congress president questioned why prominent members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), such as Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made remarks on the stock market a few days before to the results of the election being declared.

“For the first time we noted that during the elections, the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister and the Finance Minister commented on the stock market,” Rahul Gandhi told the media.

“PM Modi said that the stock market is rising at a great speed. the Union Home Minister said that on June 4 the stock market will be on the rise and you all should invest and similar was said by the Finance Minister. Amit Shah says buy shares before June 4. On May 19, PM Modi says the stock market will break records on June 4,” he added.

Later on Thursday, Union Minister Piyush Goyal slammed Rahul Gandhi and called his allegations “absolutely baseless”. He claimed that the former Congress president was attempting to instill fear among investors. In response to Gandhi’s accusations, Goyal said that the Congress party was plotting to discredit the BJP and emphasized how the market has thrived under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.

Rahul Gandhi made his accusations a few days after equities investors had a staggering loss of Rs 31 lakh crore, sending markets into meltdown and the BSE Sensex plunging about 6% as patterns in vote counting indicated the BJP would not secure an outright majority in the Lok Sabha elections.

The scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family went on to explain the “chronology of events” by stating that the BJP’s internal official survey predicted 220 seats for them.

“Intelligence agencies had told that the government that they will get 200-220 seats. Stock market breaks all records on June 3, and on June 4, stock market goes underground,” he said.

“Why did the PM and Union Home Minister give specific investment advice to the five crore families investing in the stock market? Is it their job to give investment advice?”

The Congress leader asked why Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah spoke with a TV channel owned by the same business entity that is being investigated by SEBI for stock manipulation.

“Why were both interviews given to the same media owned by the same business group which is also under SEBI investigation for manipulating stock?” he said.

“We demand a JPC into this. We are convinced that this is a scam. Somebody has made thousands of crores of rupees at the cost of Indian retail investors and the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister have given an indication to buy. So we demand today a joint parliamentary committee to investigate this,” Rahul Gandhi added.

While countering Rahul Gandhi’s allegations, Piyush Goyal claimed that the Congress leader is still in shock over his party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections

“Rahul Gandhi has still not overcome the loss in the Lok Sabha elections. Now, he is trying to mislead the market investors. Today, India has become the fifth-largest economy,” Goyal said during a press conference.

Under PM Modi’s direction, Goyal claimed, India’s equity market has surpassed the market capitalization of the world’s top five economies.

“In the last 10 years of the Modi government, for the first time, our market cap has crossed over 5 trillion dollars. Today, India’s equity market has entered the market cap of the top 5 economies of the world. We know that the market cap of PSUs listed in the market has increased four times under the Modi government,” Goyal said.

Goyal criticized the former UPA government, pointing out that India’s market capitalization was only Rs 67 lakh crore ten years prior to UPA reign.

“Today the market cap of PSUs listed in the market has increased to Rs 415 crore,” the BJP MP said.