NEW DELHI:
Congress
and BJP were involved in a high-wattage face-off on Thursday with
Rahul Gandhi
demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the “role” of PM
Narendra Modi
, home minister Amit Shah and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman into what he claimed was a “Rs 30 lakh crore stock market scam” allegedly engineered through “fake” exit polls. BJP’s
Piyush Goyal
hit back by alleging that the charge was a conspiracy to mislead
investors
.
Addressing a press conference, Rahul said the PM, home minister and FM gave “investment advice” to people ahead of poll results and added that the “fake” pollsters also needed to be investigated.
BJP dismissed the charges and accused Rahul of conspiring to scare domestic and foreign investors, asserting that stock market indices had begun rising as a Modi-led govt was set to return to office for a third consecutive term. “Rahul Gandhi has still not overcome the loss in the Lok Sabha polls. Now, he is conspiring to mislead
market investors
,” Goyal said at a press conference while rejecting the demand for a JPC probe.
EAS Sarma, a former secretary in the finance ministry, has written to economic affairs secretary Ajay Seth demanding a probe by the Enforcement Directorate, CBI and CBDT into the stock market crash. He has also asked whether Sebi has taken up any investigation into the issue.
Buoyed by exit poll predictions of a decisive mandate for BJP-led NDA, the week kicked off with the BSE sensex soaring 2,500 points to a record high of 76,469 only to register its worst crash of 4,390 points to 72,079 after the poll results on Tuesday, resulting in a Rs 31 lakh crore wealth destruction for investors. At one point, it was down 6,000 points on heavy selling of shares. It has, however, recovered since then and on Thursday, closed 692 points higher at 75,074. Rahul questioned why the BJP leadership had encouraged people to invest in stocks ahead of poll results and alleged that Modi and Shah were “directly involved” in what he described as the “biggest stock market scam”.
“Why did the PM and HM give specific investment advice to the 5 crore families investing in the stock markets?” he asked. “Why both the interviews were given to the same media house (owned) by the same business group, which is also under
SEBI investigations
for manipulating stock markets? What is the connection between BJP, fake exit pollsters and dubious foreign investors who invested one day before the exit polls were announced and made huge profits at the cost of five crore families?”
Rs 30 lakh crore Rahul mentioned is notional amount, not tied to trading: Goyal
Without naming NDTV, Rahul said the interviews (of PM Modi and Amit Shah) were conducted by channels owned by Adani.
“This is a criminal act,” he said, arguing that it was the first time that Modi, Shah and Sitharaman had commented on the stock market. “Quite interestingly, this has never happened before that the PM has commented on the stock market. This is happening for the first time and multiple times when he is saying that the stock market is going to boom,” Rahul said. He claimed that from its internal surveys and feedback from intelligence agencies, BJP knew it was not going to win over 220 seats, but despite that “the exit polls were made to show that BJP was winning a large number of seats”.
Countering the charges, Piyush Goyal said the Rs 30 lakh crore mentioned Rahul was a notional amount and did not relate to trading. “He (Rahul) does not understand. That is why people of India do not trust him,” the newly elected MP from Mumbai said, arguing that retail and domestic investors had benefited the most from the stock market rise during the last 10 years.
“Rahul should be concerned about the fear of investors as the market crashed when Congress was doing better than expected. Now, people are confident that the Modi govt is coming back, and the market has stabilised and is reclaiming its previous highs,” he said.
He expressed confidence that the reforms envisioned by the new govt will continue at a time when the country is poised for a bright future. “We are delighted that our allies are progressive and support reforms,” Goyal said.
He said Rahul was desperate after the opposition alliance failed in its bid for power.
