Rahul Gandhi, the president of the Indian opposition, has demanded that an exploration into a stock market crash that affected owners at the conclusion of the general election.
He accused senior Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) leaders of making false predictions about stock prices rising after the results were released the day after.
Mr Gandhi, from the Congress party, claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged people to buy stocks before this, which led to them losing money when the market crashed.
Mr Modi’s group, the BJP, has denied the allegations.
Mr. Gandhi has demanded that a Joint Parliamentary Committee ( JPC ) look into Mr. Modi’s and senior ministers ‘ alleged roles.
He claimed that Mr. Modi, original Home Minister Amit Shah, and former finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had issued a warning to “buy shares before June 4,” suggesting that the business would surge in anticipation of a BJP success.
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 rumour has been spread, I suggest that you buy (shares) before 4 June. It will shoot up.”
Mr Gandhi has labelled it” the biggest scam” in India’s stock market history, alleging that the adjustment benefited certain “dubious international buyers”, causing Indians to lose billions of pounds.
Mr Modi’s departing commerce secretary, Piyush Goyal, has refuted the allegations, accusing Mr Gandhi of misleading owners.
Exit polls had predicted that the BJP would comfortably win a majority – securing more than 272 seats in the 543 member parliament – while together with its alliance partners, this figure would touch 360-370.
The BJP failing to reach the halfway point on its own and the National Democratic Alliance ( NDA ) receiving only 293 seats, the results were markedly different from these predictions.
Mr. Gandhi has since claimed that the BJP knew from its internal study and the intelligence agencies ‘ feedback that it would not get more than 220 seats.
” Despite that, the exit elections were made to show that the BJP was winning a large number of tickets”, Mr Gandhi alleged.
This, he alleged, led to substantial purchase of stocks on 3 June.
When the results came out the next day, the Indian stock market saw one of its worst crashes in years, with investments worth billions of dollars being wiped out.
Since in April and May, when the industry was on the rise, foreign investors had sold stocks that Indians had purchased, according to Mr. Goyal of the BJP, who claimed it was Indians who had profited from the rise and fall in share prices.
And this happened afterwards on 4 June, when the market crashed, he said.
” So immigrants bought at a high price and sold at a low price. American traders bought at a lower price than they did for high-priced items. But in a way, American traders earned even in this phase. No single suffered a damage”, he said.
Congress chief Jairam Ramesh called Mr. Goyal’s explanation “rubbish” and claimed that it did not respond to any particular inquiries posed by Mr. Gandhi on Friday.
The BJP has never responded to Mr Ramesh’s claims.