‘Biggest stock market scam…we demand Joint Parliamentary Committee’: Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had given “investment advice” to people during the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls which resulted in losses of lakhs of crores to retail investors and demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe terming it “biggest stock market scam”.

Addressing a press conference, the Congress leader said that after ‘fake’ exit polls, stock markets rose, and then crashed on June 4.

“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, 19 May 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.

He further asserted, “The retail investors lost Rs 30 lakh crore, this is the biggest stock market scam”. “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? 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?” he asked.

“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,” he said. Rahul Gandhi also demanded an inquiry against PM Modi, Home Minister Shah and those who carried out exit polls.

The counting of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was held on Tuesday. According to the Election Commission of India, the BJP won 240 seats, much lower than its 2019 tally of 303. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a strong growth, winning 99 seats. The INDIA bloc crossed the 230 mark, posing stiff competition, and defying all predictions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has secured a third term, but the BJP will need to rely on the support of other parties in his coalition – JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar and TDP’s chief Chandrababu Naidu. The BJP fell 32 seats short of the 272 majority mark after votes polled in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were counted. For the first time, since the Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power in 2014, it did not secure a majority on its own. (ANI)