In a bombshell accusation against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the duo’s statement over stock market in pre-poll campaigns resulted in losses of lakhs of crores to retail investors.
He further demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe terming it “biggest stock market scam.”
The Congress leader who made a strong comeback this election winning two constituencies said, “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. The Prime Minister 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, PM Modi says the stock market will break records on June 4. Why did the PM, Home Minister give investment advice to investors,” Rahul Gandhi said.
Also Read:Amid poll jitters, here’s how Rahul Gandhi’s stocks performed
Is it Modi-Shah job to give investment advice? he asks
Lashing out further on the duo, Rahul said, “Why did PM Modi 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? 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 continued asking, “What is the connection between the BJP, the fake exit pollsters and the dubious foreign investors who invested one day before the exit polls were announced and made a huge profit at the cost of five crore salaries? We demand a JPC into this.
Also Read: Election Results: Opposition says Exit Poll done to influence share market
“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,” he said.
Questions data privacy
Lashing out further on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi said, “This is a broader issue than just the Adani issue, however, connected to the Adani issue. This is directly the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister, who is privy to data on actual election results, who has IB reports, who have their own data, who are advising retail investors to buy stock. This has never happened before.”
“The Prime Minister has never commented on the stock market before. This is the first time the Prime Minister has commented very interestingly and multiple times, one after the other, saying that the stock market is going to boom. At the same time, he has information that the exit polls are wrong. He has information that he knows what is going to happen because he has IB data and he also has his own party data,”he alleged.
The bloodbath of June 4
On the day of Lok Sabha election vote counting and results declaration, stock market erased $386 billion in market value as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party was struggling to win a majority of seats.
Market saw their worst fall in the last 4 years since March 2020, and erased all of Monday’s gains after exit polls predicting strong numbers for the BJP.
Volatility surged with the India VIX jumping nearly 40% to above 29. This is the biggest jump in the volatility index in at least 9 years.
All sectors were in the red with Bank stocks fell 7.8%, realty dropped 9.1%, infrastructure declined 10.5%, while oil and gas stocks lost 11.7% and state-run companies and banks retreated 17% and 16%, respectively.
Investors’ wealth eroded by around Rs 30 lakh crore, as the market capitalization of BSE-listed companies slipped to Rs 395.99 lakh crore, from Rs 425.91 lakh crore in the previous session.
Also Read: Banking stocks on shaky ground as market witnesses worst fall in last 4 years
