'Market boomed under Modi govt': Piyush Goyal counters Rahul Gandhi's June 4 crash charge

BJP MP Piyush Goyal

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on June 6 said that the claims made by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi regarding the June 4 stock market crash are absolutely baseless. Union minister Piyush said that the former Congress president is trying to create fear among investors.

Responding to the Gandhi's allegations, the BJP leader said that it is the grand old party's conspiracy to malign BJP and that market has boomed under the Modi government.

Earlier today, Rahul Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah were directly involved in what he described as the "biggest stock market scam" in which retail investors lost Rs 30 lakh crore. He also demanded a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into it.

"Rahul Gandhi has still not overcome the loss in the Lok Sabha elections. Now, he is conspiring to mislead the market investors. Today, India has become the fifth-largest economy," Piyush Goyal said during a press conference.

The BJP leader said that we cannot overlook the fact that today India's equity market entered the market cap of the top five economies of the world.

"In the last 10 years of Modi government, for the first time our market cap has crossed over 5 trillion dollars. Today, India's equity market has entered the market cap of the top 5 economies of the world ... We know that the market cap of PSUs listed in the market has increased 4 times under the Modi government," Goyal added.

Sharpening his attack on the Congress, he pointed out that when the UPA government was in power 10 years ago, India's market cap was just Rs 67 lakh crore. "Today the market cap has increased to Rs 415 lakh crore," the BJP MP said.

Piyush Goyal further added that the ownership of Indian investors in the our stock market has increased after the NDA government came to power.

"The holding of foreigners at the time of UPA was 21% and it has reduced to 16% today, that is, the investment of foreigners has reduced and the ownership of Indian investors in the Indian stock market has increased from 79% to 84% today. The size of the mutual fund industry was only Rs 10 lakh crore in 2014, today it has increased more than 5 times to Rs 56 lakh crore. Through mutual funds, Indian investors - especially small investors - are taking advantage of this growing market today and these small retail investors have ensured that India's ownership today has instantly become more than the ownership of institutional investors," he said.

In the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, Goyal defeated his nearest rival and Congress candidate Bhushan Patil from the Mumbai North constituency by a margin of 3,57,608 votes, the highest in Maharashtra.