Rahul Gandhi, the head of the Indian opposition, has called for an inquiry into the stock market meltdown that stunned investors just before the general election.
Leading figures in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were accused by him of making false projections of a sharp increase in stock prices following the results announcement on June 4.
Congressman Mr. Gandhi asserted that prior to this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged people to purchase stocks, which had resulted in their losing money during the market meltdown. The BJP, Mr. Modi’s party, has refuted the claims.
A Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the purported scandal and the involvement of Mr. Modi and senior ministers has been urged by Mr. Gandhi.
He said that the former Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, former Home Minister Amit Shah, and Mr. Modi had advised individuals to “buy stocks before 4 June” in the weeks leading up to the election, speculating that the market would rise in anticipation of a BJP victory.
“Stock market crashes should not be linked with elections, but even if such a rumour has been spread, I suggest that you buy (shares) before 4 June,” Mr. Shah stated in an interview with a news channel in May. It will soar.”
Claiming that the manipulation benefited certain “dubious foreign investors” and cost Indians trillions of rupees in losses, Mr. Gandhi has dubbed it “the biggest scam” in the history of the Indian stock market.
Piyush Goyal, Mr. Modi’s outgoing trade minister, has denied the claims and charged Mr. Gandhi with deceiving investors.
According to exit polls, the BJP was expected to easily secure a majority, capturing over 272 seats in the 543-member parliament; when combined with its alliance partners, this figure was expected to reach 360–370.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) only received 293 seats, while the BJP was unable to reach the halfway point on its own. These outcomes, however, were very different from the expectations.
Now, Mr. Gandhi has declared that the BJP knew, “from its internal survey and the feedback from the intelligence agencies,” that it would not win more than 220 seats and that the exit polls were “fake.”
“Despite that, the exit polls were made to show that the BJP was winning a large number of seats,” Gandhi claimed.
He said that as a result, on June 3, there was a huge stock purchase.
Following the announcement of the results, the Indian stock market experienced one of the greatest crashes in recent memory, wiping out billions of dollars’ worth of investments.
Mr Goyal of the BJP claimed that since foreign investors had sold shares that Indians had purchased during the market’s upswing in April and May, it was Indians who benefited from the increase and fall in stock prices. He added that on June 4, when the market plummeted, this occurred once again.
Foreign buyers so paid a premium and sold at a discount. Indian investors purchased at a discount and sold at a premium. Thus, Indian investors made money during this time. Nobody lost anything,” he declared.
Congressman Jairam Ramesh said on Friday that Mr. Goyal’s justification was “rubbish” and that it failed to address several issues brought up by Mr. Gandhi.
In response to Mr. Ramesh’s claims, the BJP has not commented.
