In the wake of the stock market crash on June 4, on the day of Lok Sabha election results, which allegedly resulted in a loss of ₹30 lakh crore for Indian investors, Rahul Gandhi has raised serious concerns. The senior Congress today held a press conference in Delhi flanked by party’s senior leaders and claimed the involvement of the Prime Minister (PM) and the Home Minister (HM) in giving specific investment advice. Ms Gandhi has called for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate what he terms the “biggest-ever stock market scam.”

Mr Gandhi questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah provided specific investment advice to the 5 crore families involved in the stock market, emphasizing that it is not their role to do so.

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He highlighted that both of them had given interviews to the same media house, owned by a business group currently under SEBI investigation for manipulating stock markets.

Furthermore, Gandhi drew attention to the timing and the coordinated messages:

– On May 13, 2024, Amit Shah advised buying shares before June 4th.

– On May 19, 2024, Narendra Modi predicted record-breaking stock market performance on June 4th.

– On June 1, 2024, exit polls were released after the last phase of polling.

– On June 3, 2024, the stock market reached an all-time high before crashing the next day.

Mr Gandhi suggested a link between the BJP, dubious exit pollsters, and foreign investors who made significant profits by investing just before the exit polls were announced, at the expense of the 5 crore families. He emphasized that the PM and HM, who have access to election results data and Intelligence Bureau (IB) reports, were uniquely positioned to know the actual outcomes, potentially leading to informed and misleading advice to retail investors.

This issue, Gandhi argued, extends beyond the Adani controversy and implicates top government officials in potentially unethical financial practices. He pointed out that it is unprecedented for the Prime Minister to comment repeatedly on the stock market, suggesting that this was done with foreknowledge of the incorrect exit polls, informed by IB and party data.

Reacting to the Congress’ allegation, BJP leader Piyush Goyal said: “Rahul Gandhi has still not overcome the loss in the Lok Sabha Elections. Now, he is conspiring to mislead the market investors. Today, India has become the fifth-largest economy…”