Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were “directly involved” in the June 4 stock market crash that “wiped out” ₹30 lakh crore of investor wealth, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Thursday demanded a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe the matter.
Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters, Mr. Gandhi referred to the June 4 crash as “the biggest stock market crash scam”, one that pushed up the markets after “fake” exit polls, saw a record transaction on June 3 and then crashed a day later when the votes were counted.
He added that the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman commented on the stock market for the first time during the polls.
“We want to ask a few questions: why did the PM and HM give specific investment advice to the 5 crore families investing in the stock markets? Is it their job to give investment advice to the people?” asked Mr Gandhi.
“Why both interviews were given to the same media house owned by the same business group, which is also under SEBI [Securities and Exchange Board of India] investigations for manipulating stock markets? 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 huge profits, at the cost of 5 crore families? We demand a JPC [probe] into this,” he said.
Responding to a question on the Opposition’s strategy if the government didn’t agree to a JPC probe, he said the situation has changed since the Opposition has more numbers and “the Prime Minister will not be able to carry on with impunity”.
Narrating the chronology of events, he said Mr. Shah advised people to “buy shares before June 4” on May 13 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, on May 19, asserted that the stock market “will break all records on June 4”. He asserted that the top BJP leadership was aware that the exit polls were “fake” as the party’s internal survey had given them 220 seats and intelligence agency assessments had said that the ruling party would win between 200 and 220 seats.
“We are absolutely convinced that this is a scam, somebody made thousands of crores of rupees at the cost of Indian retail investors. The Prime Minister and the Home Minister had given an indication to buy. And this is a criminal act,” the Congress leader said.
Asked if the stock market issue was connected with the Adani Group, Mr. Gandhi said this was broader than the Adani issue. “This is directly the Prime Minister of India and the Home Minister who are privy to data on the actual election results, who have the IB reports, who have their own data, and who are advising retail investors to buy stocks,” Mr. Gandhi alleged.
Published - June 06, 2024 06:13 pm IST
