New Delhi. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday rejected the Congress’ demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into Hindenburg’s allegations against the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman, saying it was a sham to weaken the Indian economy and destroy investments in the country.
BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad reiterated the party’s stand at a press conference here that the allegation of short selling company and criticism of market regulator SEBI by the opposition is part of a larger conspiracy. He said that India is being seen globally as a safe, stable and better market but the Congress party wants to create an atmosphere that India’s investment scenario is not safe. Prasad said that billionaire investor George Soros is an investor in Hindenburg and is known for running a propaganda campaign against the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that the Congress wants the stock market to collapse which has given good income to crores of small investors.
He said, “After being rejected by the people, the Congress, its allies and its closest allies in the toolkit gang have conspired together to bring economic chaos and instability in India.” Prasad questioned why such a critical report was not brought when many alleged scams took place during the 10-year rule of the Congress between 2004 and 2014? He alleged, “The leadership of the Congress party is involved in creating economic chaos on the basis of this fictitious report.” However, he insisted that investors have realized the conspiracy and rejected the attempts to shock the market.
He said the Hindenburg report has turned out to be a “bogus” report as Indian investors did not believe this “well-planned conspiracy” of short sellers and the Congress.
Prasad said that a large number of small investors have put their money in the stock market. He wondered why the Congress wants to harm them? He claimed, “After hating Prime Minister Narendra Modi, led by Rahul Gandhi and his toolkit friends, the Congress has now started hating India.” The former Union minister said that SEBI had sent a notice to US-based Hindenburg as part of its last year’s allegations of stock market manipulation against the Adani Group, but it did not join the investigation and instead targeted its chairperson Madhavi Puri Buch.
On Gandhi opening a front against the government on this issue, Prasad said that he has a habit of making baseless allegations. He said that he never gave his phone for investigation after the investigation was ordered on the Pegasus issue. He claimed that the BJP will expose the Congress. Hindenburg Research had alleged in a report on Saturday that SEBI Chairperson Buch and her husband had a stake in the obscure ‘foreign funds’ used in the alleged Adani money laundering scam.
SEBI chief Buch and her husband have issued a joint statement rejecting Hindenburg’s allegations and calling it completely baseless. Adani Group on Sunday termed the latest allegations by US research and investment firm Hindenburg Research as malicious and selectively manipulating public information and said it has no commercial relationship with the chairperson of market regulator SEBI or her husband.
Prasad also criticized the Trinamool Congress government of West Bengal over the rape and murder of a doctor in a government hospital in Kolkata and alleged that it was trying to cover up the matter. He said that the state government should hand over the investigation of the case to the CBI. On a question related to attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh, Prasad questioned the silence of other opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi and said that the Prime Minister has asked the Bangladesh government to protect them.