Buoyed by the huge electoral gains in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday sought an enquiry against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and all those involved in ‘manipulating’ the stock markets around June 4 when the Lok Sabha poll results were to be announced.
Rahul alleged that Modi and Shah were “directly involved” in what he described as the “biggest stock market scam” in which retail investors lost Rs 30 lakh crore, and demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into it. Congress will also discuss it during the party’s working committee (CWC) meeting convened on Saturday post Lok Sabha poll results and how to corner the Government by also roping in INDIA Bloc members on this issue.
A former IAS officer EAS Sarma, who served as Finance Secretary in 1999-2000, too demanded an enquiry by the Enforcement Directorate into the June 4 stock market crash on the day of election results in which Rs 31 lakh crore of investors’ wealth was wiped out. Addressing a Press conference at the AICC, Rahul also said stock markets rose after “fake” exit polls and then crashed the day Lok Sabha polls votes were counted on June 4. “For the first time we noted that during polls, Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Shah, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman commented on the stock market,” he said.
Why did the Prime Minister and Home Minister give investment advice to people, Rahul asked and alleged that BJP leaders had information that exit polls were wrong. “We want the JPC probe into the biggest stock market scam,” he said.
People higher up in the BJP carried out this stock market scam and Modi and Shah were directly involved, the Congress leader alleged. “We want an inquiry against Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Shah and those who carried out the exit polls,” he said.
“This is a broader issue than the Adani issue. It is connected to the Adani issue but it is much broader. 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. 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. He has information that the exit polls are wrong and he knows what is going to happen because of the IB data and his own party data,” Rahul said at the jam-packed Press conference.
In a letter to Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth, Sarma wanted to know if market regulator Sebi has taken any action to calm the market or initiated an investigation to ascertain the reason behind sharp fluctuations in stock market movement on June 3 and 4.
“It is disturbing that a combination of factors triggered a stock market surge on June 3, 2024, followed by a huge crash during the day that followed, wiping out the hard-earned savings invested in the market by small and marginal investors, allowing the bigger stock market sharks to profiteer at their cost. Even today, the stock market has not fully recovered,” said Sarma, who was a Secretary in the Finance Ministry between 1999 and 2000.
Following the exit poll prediction of a resounding BJP victory, BSE benchmark Sensex shot up on Monday by 2,507 points or 3.4 per cent to settle at a new closing peak of 76,469. However, a day later on Tuesday, the equity markets witnessed a bloodbath, with the Sensex tanking 4,390 points or 6 per cent to settle at 72,079. This was the worst single-day fall in 4 years.
