'Is It PM's and HM's Job to Give Investment Advice?': Rahul Seeks JPC Probe on June 4 Market Crash

New Delhi: Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi already knew that the BJP won't go past the majority mark, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed that top BJP leaders had misled the retail investors of the country to invest in the stock markets before June 4 results were declared and called for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe.

“During the election campaigning, PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the country on several occasions that stock market will experience rapid growth after the results were declared. Shah clearly said that after June 4, sky is the limit for the markets. And, the same words were repeated by the Finance Minister,” said Rahul. 

Sharing a slide showing the chronology of events where top BJP leaders asked retail investors to invest in stock markets, Rahul said, "Narendra Modi had highlighted that the stock markets will break all records on June 4 on May 19." Rahul further went on to claim that BJP was aware that they were not going to score a majority this time around as their official internal survey and the intelligence agencies gave them anywhere between 200 to 200 seats.

"On June 3, the stock markets break all records based on exit polls. And, on June 4, the stock markets crashed," said Rahul Gandhi, adding that the retail investors lost Rs 30 lakh crore as they were pulled into the markets based on the “false” advice and assurance given by top BJP leaders, including PM Modi and HM Amit Shah during the run-up to the election results.

After making these allegations, Rahul posed few questions for PM Modi – “1. Is it the job of the PM and HM to give specific investment advice to the 5 crore families investing in stock markets?, 2. Why both interviews were given to the same business house owned by the same business group, which is also under SEBI investigations for manipulating stock markets?”

BJP Responds To Rahul's Charges

Hitting out at Rahul's allegations, senior BJP leader Piyush Goyal said that this is a new Congress ploy to "deceive market investors" as the Gandhi scion is still unable to recover from a third loss in a row."10 yrs ago, under the UPA government the market cap was only Rs 67 lakh crore. After May 2014, it grew up to Rs 415 lakh crore market cap, which is nearly a 300 per cent increase", said Goyal, adding, "It seems like Rahul Gandhi has not overcome the defeat of the opposition in the Lok Sabha elections. Now, he is trying to deceive market investors. Today, India has become the fifth-largest economy in the world. The whole world accepts that it is the fastest-growing economy in the world. PM Modi has assured the nation that in this term, India will become the third-largest economy