Rahul Gandhi Accuses PM Modi, Amit Shah Of 'Manipulating Stock Market', Demands JPC Probe

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has alleged that PM Modi, Amit Shah, and Nirmala Sitharaman manipulated the stock market on election results day. He demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into it.

Congress MP Rahul alleged Thursday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman manipulated the stock markets on Lok Sabha election results day. He also demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) investigation into the matter. A JPC is composed of members of both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha and is dissolved after a particular task is completed. The JPC can only advise and not mandate its recommendations. Previous stock market "irregularities" investigated by JPCs include the 1992 Harshad Mehta stock market scam and the 2001 Ketan Parekh share market scam.

Alleging stock market manipulation by PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi said: "For the first time, we saw the Prime Minister, the Home Minister, and the Finance Minister comment on the stock market. The PM on 3-4 occasions told the nation that the stock market would surge. The Union Home Minister clearly said that on June 4 the stock market will skyrocket and people should buy stocks. The same message was repeated by the Union Finance Minister."

Rahul Gandhi then sought to detail the "chronology" of the events on which his allegations were based. Referring to a media interview by Home Minister Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi said: "Amit Shah on May 13 urged people to buy shares before June 4. On June 19, Narendra Modi said that stock markets will break records on June 4. He makes the same claim on June 28." Rahul Gandhi went on to say that media organisations released the exit polls on June 1, which showed the BJP winning a massive mandate. All exit polls were proved wrong on June 4 as the Opposition won a better-than-expected mandate.

"The BJP's internal survey, which was with their leaders, gave them 220 seats. Intelligence agencies told the government that the BJP would win 200-220 seats," Rahul Gandhi alleged.

He pointed out how the stock markets broke all records before crashing on June 4. 

Referring to a presentation made by his party, Rahul Gandhi showed that there was a massive activity surge on May 31, which was double of that in the previous few days. "These were the people who knew there was a scam going on. Investors, including foreign investors, poured thousands of crores into the market. Then, on June 4, retail investors suffered a loss of Rs 30 lakh crore."

"This is the biggest scam in the history of India's stock market," Rahul Gandhi said. He demanded a JPC inquiry and said: "We are absolutely convinced this is a scam and somebody made thousands of crores at the cost of Indian retail investors. The PM and HM had given an indication to buy [stocks]. This is a criminal act."

Congress's Stock Market Questions To Government

The Congress has now posed several questions to the BJP over the allegations of stock market manipulation:

1. Why did the PM and Home Minister give specific investment advice to the 5 crore families investing in the stock markets?

2. Why both interviews were given to the same media house owned by the same business group, which is also under SEBI investigations for manipulating stock markets?

3. What is the connection between the BJP, the fake exit pollsters, and the dubious foreign investors who invested one day before the exit polls and made a huge profit at the cost of 5 crore families?