New Delhi: The BJP on Monday rejected the Congress’ demand for a JPC probe into Hindenburg’s allegation against the SEBI chairperson, saying it is a sham with an eye on weakening the Indian economy and destroying investment in the country.
BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad reiterated the party’s line that the short-selling firm’s charge and the opposition’s criticism of the market regulator are part of a wider conspiracy.
While India is being globally seen as a safe, stable and promising market, the Congress party wants to project that the Indian investment scenario is not safe, he alleged, suggesting that the opposition party was seizing on the “chits” provided by foreign entities to damage economy.
Billionaire investor George Soros is an investor in Hinderburg and he is known for running propaganda against the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prasad said.
The Congress wants stock market, which has given good returns to crores of small investors, to crash, he said.
“After being rebuffed by people, the Congress, its allies and its closest ally in the toolkit gang have conspired together to usher in economic anarchy and instability in India,” he told reporters.
The 10-year-old rule of the Congress between 2004 and 2014 was marked by several alleged scams, Prasad noted, as he questioned why such critical reports were not brought out then.
He alleged, “The Congress party leadership is involved in creating economic anarchy based on this fictitious report.”
He, however, asserted that investors have come to realise the “conspiracy” and rejected the attempts to jolt the market.
“In its pathological hatred for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi and his toolkit friends, has developed hatred for India.”
The SEBI had sent a notice to the US-based Hindenburg as part of its probe on the Supreme Court’s order following the firm’s allegations of stock market manipulation against the Adani group.
Hindenburg never replied but has instead launched an attack on SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, he said.
With Gandhi spearheading his party’s attack on the government over the issue, Prasad said he has a habit of throwing unfounded charges and noted that he never gave his phone for investigation after an investigation was ordered over the Pegasus issue.
The BJP will expose the Congress, he claimed.
At the press conference, he also slammed the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal over the rape and murder of a doctor at a state-run hospital, alleging that it was trying to cover up the incident.
The BJP MP said the state government should hand over the probe to the CBI.
Amid attacks on minority Hindus in the unrest-hit Bangladesh, the BJP leader questioned the silence of the opposition leaders, including Gandhi, and noted that Modi had spoken about the need to protect them.
The Congress has demanded Buch’s resignation and urged the Supreme Court to transfer the Adani probe to the CBI or a Special Investigation Team given the “likelihood of SEBI’s compromise”.
The opposition party also reiterated that the path forward is to immediately convene a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate the full extent of what it described as the “Modani mega scam”.
