Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has sought a parliamentary probe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and top leaders of the BJP over what he claimed was a stock market “scam” – referring to the ostensible link between market trading and exit poll projections.
Speaking to the media in Delhi, Gandhi asked why PM Modi and Shah advised the public to “invest in the market”. He also questioned the PM’s and home minister’s interviews “only to those Adani channels against which SEBI is carrying out an investigation”. “In such a situation, what is the role of those channels?” Gandhi asked.
“People higher up in BJP carried out this stock market scam,” he said. “Amit Shah says, ‘Buy shares before June 4. Exit polls come on June 1. BJP’s internal survey was predicting 220 seats. Intelligence had said that the government will get 200 to 220 seats. On June 3, the stock market broke records. On June 4, the stock market went down. On May 31, there was heavy stock activity. These were the people who knew that some scam was going on. Thousands of crores were invested here. There was a loss of Rs 30 lakh crore. Retail investors suffered…This is the biggest scam of India,” Gandhi said.
Why did the prime minister and home minister give investment advice to people, Gandhi asked and alleged that BJP leaders had information that exit polls were wrong. “We want a JPC probe into the biggest stock market scam.”
The Congress leader is not the only one to have made allegations about the role of the exit polls in the market crash on the day of the results.
While the leads solidified on late Tuesday afternoon, Zee News made wild allegations against four media outfits and their owners, with insinuations about the BJP’s alleged links to the media ecosystem in India.
Newslaundry had earlier reported how all exit polls got it wrong and why. Editorials in papers had earlier highlighted the need for stricter disclosure norms for pollsters.
Meanwhile, as Gandhi took questions from the media, he accused a journalist of taking a “BJP waali line”.
Good on the journalist to stand her ground when accused by Rahul Gandhi of asking a “BJP-wali line” question, and taunted by him to get a T-shirt with the BJP symbol. Politicians of all parties should learn to treat journalists with more respect.
— Nirupama Subramanian (@tallstories) June 6, 2024
“We have seen before that the government and the opposition face off against each other during sessions over demands for a JPC probe. And sessions are washed out. And public money is wasted,” said Mausami Singh of Aaj Tak.
“This is the BJP’s line,” said Gandhi.
“No, but public money…” continued Singh.
“Take a T-shirt like this. I will give it to you. I will give you the symbol,” said Gandhi.
“It’s a different matter altogether if you don’t like the question,” said Singh.
“I like the question a lot,” said Gandhi, allowing the journalist to proceed with the question.
“Since work is hampered because of JPC demand, is there an alternate option to look at this since public money is spent on JPC,” asked Singh.
“We are telling the people that a scam has clearly taken place,” said Gandhi, adding that the prime minister, home minister and finance minister had indicated this. He said it’s usually the BJP’s position that parliament’s time is being wasted whenever a demand for JPC is raised, and that is “why I told you that this is the BJP’s line”.
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