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 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.
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.
The Congress party has been demanding a JPC investigation into the stock market crash, alleging that the BJP government is involved in a cover-up. The BJP has denied the allegations and said that the stock market crash was due to global factors.
