Modi government faces allegations major stock market scam

• He accuses the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders of making misleading predictions about stock prices surging after June 4.
• The BJP denies the allegations and has requested a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate the alleged scam.
• Piyush Goyal, the departing trade minister, refutes the allegations and accuses Gandhi of misleading investors.

Rahul Gandhi, an Indian opposition leader, has demanded an investigation into a stock market crash that impacted investors at the end of the general election. He accused top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of making misleading predictions about stock prices surging after June 4, the day the results were announced.

Rahul Gandhi from the Congress party claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged people to buy stocks, leading to losses when the market crashed. The BJP, Mr. Modi’s party, has denied the allegations.

Rahul Gandhi has demanded that a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) investigate the alleged scam and the roles of Prime Minister Modi and senior ministers.

He alleged that weeks before the election results, Prime Minister Modi, ex-Home Minister Amit Shah, and former Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman advised people to “buy stocks before June 4,” suggesting the market would surge afterward in anticipation of a BJP victory.

In May, Mr Shah told NDTV news channel in an interview: “Stock market crashes should not be linked with elections, but even if such a rumor has been spread, I suggest that you buy (shares) before 4 June. It will shoot up.”

Rahul Gandhi has labeled it “the biggest scam” in India’s stock market history, alleging that the manipulation benefited certain “dubious foreign investors,” causing Indians to lose trillions of rupees. Piyush Goyal, the departing trade minister, has refuted the allegations and accused Gandhi of misleading investors.

Exit polls predicted that the BJP would comfortably win a majority by securing more than 272 seats in the 543-member parliament. The expectation was that, combined with its alliance partners, this figure would reach 360-370 seats.

However, the results drastically differed from these predictions, with the BJP failing to reach the halfway mark on its own and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) securing just 293 seats. Gandhi now claims that the exit polls were “fake” and that the BJP knew from its internal survey and intelligence agency feedback that it would not win more than 220 seats.

“Despite that, the exit polls were made to show that the BJP was winning a large number of seats,” Mr Gandhi alleged.

He alleged that this led to the massive buying of stocks on June 3. When the results came out the next day, the Indian stock market witnessed one of its worst crashes in years, wiping out investments worth billions of dollars.

Mr. Goyal of the BJP stated that Indians gained from the rise and fall in stock prices, as in April and May, when the market was on an upswing, foreign investors sold shares that Indians bought. He added that this occurred again on June 4 when the market crashed.

“So foreigners bought at a high price and sold at a low price. Indian investors sold at a high price and bought at a low price. So in a way, Indian investors earned even in this period. No one suffered a loss,” he said.

On Friday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh stated that Mr. Goyal’s explanation was “rubbish” and added that it did not address specific questions raised by Mr. Gandhi. The BJP has not responded to Mr. Ramesh’s allegations.

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