“Hard-earned savings of millions of Indians are at risk”. This is what Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said after the dubious Hindenburg Report levelled allegations against SEBI’s chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch for not acting against the Adani conglomerate. It is rather ironic that the Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi is fearmongering about the Indian stock market after having personally profited by a staggering Rs 46 lakh from his own stock investments.
Recently, IANS reported that Rahul Gandhi made a profit of Rs 46.49 lakh from his stock investments in the last five months. Rahul Gandhi’s stock market portfolio was found to have increased in value from approximately Rs 4.33 crore as of 15th March 2024) to nearly Rs 4.80 crore till 12th August.
Some of the major stocks in Rahul Gandhi’s portfolio include Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, Deepak Nitrite, Divis Labs, GMM Pfaudler, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, ITC, TCS, Titan, Tube Investments of India and LTIMindtree. Out of the 24 stocks held by Gandhi, only 4 are loss-making.
On the 11th of August, Rahul Gandhi shared a video message on X wherein he was seen blatantly fearmongering about the stock market and hyping the dubious Hindenburg Research report to attack businessman Gautam Adani and the Modi government.
Equating the Indian stock market with a cricket match, Rahul Gandhi asked what would happen if a match is going on between India and Australia and everyone knows that the umpire is compromised. Gandhi said this to claim that SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch is compromised.
“Over the last few years, larger and larger number of people have been investing in India’s stock market. They invest their hard-earned savings in the stock market. As LoP it is my duty to bring this to your notice that there is significant risk in the stock market because the institution that governs the stock market is compromised… A very serious allegation has been made against Adani Group was illegal share ownership and stock manipulation using offshore funds. It has now emerged that SEBI chairwoman Madhabi Buch and her husband had an interest in one of those funds,” Rahul Gandhi claimed adding that the ‘umpire’ herself is ‘compromised’.
The integrity of SEBI, the securities regulator entrusted with safeguarding the wealth of small retail investors, has been gravely compromised by the allegations against its Chairperson.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 11, 2024
Honest investors across the country have pressing questions for the government:
– Why… pic.twitter.com/vZlEl8Qb4b
On one hand, Rahul Gandhi says that the hard-earned and honestly earned savings of Indians are not safe on the other he rakes up a whopping Rs 46 lakh profit from his stock market investments. Of the 24 stocks in Gandhi’s portfolio, 20 are profit-making and yet he claims “honestly earned money of Indians is at risk”. Such handsome gains make one wonder whether Rahul Gandhi’s money is not ‘honestly earned’ or there isn’t an essential risk to the investments of the people, as he claimed.
While India is treading the path of economic growth and the Sensex has touched record heights in recent months, Rahul Gandhi decided to place his blind trust in a foreign entity’s report whose previous allegations were trashed by the Supreme Court. Be it mocking the ‘Make in India’ initiative or PM Modi’s $5 trillion economy ambition, the opposition parties take delight in spreading negativity about India’s economic growth.
Gandhi has been vocal for months about the ‘fragility’ of India’s economic growth and the possible risks lurking within the stock market. He has often referenced the short seller Hindenburg’s Report to cast doubt on India’s economic direction and to argue that the country’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, notably those close to the Modi government.
Gandhi’s rhetoric usually pictures the Indian economy to be somehow on the verge of collapse, fostering an atmosphere of uncertainty and scaring potential investors. His sinister fixation over wealth creators like Adani, labelling them as icons of crony capitalism, serves to polish his image as a saviour of poor people against the rich. However, his constant criticism of the stock market and successful Indian entrepreneurs contrasts dramatically with his personal financial gains from the same market, raising doubts about his integrity and reliability as a political leader, especially when he dreams of becoming the Prime Minister of India.
After failure to project PM Modi as “corrupt” with his Rafale Deal allegations, Gandhi’s persistent tirade against Indian business mammoths, particularly the Adani Group, is apparently, part of a larger political plan to position himself as a defender of the common man, opposing what claims to be an unholy alliance between big business and government. However, his recent financial gain demonstrates the complexities of his stance and the absurdity of his statements.
Incidentally, on one hand, Rahul Gandhi has been trying to implicate Adani as a partner in crime with PM Modi and coined terms like ‘Modani’, on the other, his own government in Telangana signed our Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) worth Rs 12,400 crore with the Adani group at the sideline of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2024 in Davos, Switzerland earlier this year. If Gautam Adani and his companies are indulging in illegal practices why is Congress giving projects to the Adani group? If not, then why launch selective attacks against him?
There seems to be a pattern. The first Hindenburg Report against Adani Group was released ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and the same was used by Congress to build a narrative that ‘Modi’s friends’ are corrupt and thus Modi is also corrupt. Rahul Gandhi then coupled this corruption narrative with caste card and came up with a ‘wealth redistribution’ poll promise based on Caste ‘X-ray’ [caste census] findings. The idea perhaps was that he first accuses the Modi government and his alleged corporate ‘friends’ of crony capitalism, foment divides and then project himself as the ‘JanNayak’ of the poor fighting the crony capitalists.
While the increase in seats of Congress and the I.N.D.I. Alliance suggests that this tactic may have benefitted them, the Indian stock market boom continued despite an initial setback for the Adani conglomerate.
OpIndia earlier reported how despite the Supreme Court giving a clean chit to the Adani group after finding no malpractice or price manipulation, Rahul Gandhi remained hell-bent on casting aspersions on the integrity of the Adani Group and PM Modi. The Supreme Court committee had said that there was no regulatory failure relating to Minimum Public Shareholding and no violation of compliance.
Notably, this is not the first time that Rahul Gandhi has attacked SEBI, earlier, alleged that Former SEBI Chairman UK Sinha was made NDTV director because SEBI gave a clean chit to Adani. However, UK Sinha retired as SEBI Chairman in February 2017, and there is no report of any clan chit given by SEBI to Adani during his term.
Congress wants to establish the false narrative that Indian businessmen such as Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani are ‘evil capitalists’ who are somehow working in cahoots with the government to exploit the poor people.
While after the Hindenburg report was released on Saturday, it was expected that the market would witness a freefall, fortunately, the report had minimal impact even though Adani Group lost approximately $13.4 billion in value. It is evident that the Indian investors understood that the Hindenburg Report is simply a continuation of the US short-seller’s personal attacks on the SEBI chief and Adani Group.
Notably, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) recently urged investors to remain calm and conduct thorough research before reacting to the Hindenburg Research report. SEBI refuted the accusations levelled by the US-based short seller and said “the allegations made by Hindenburg Research, against the Adani Group, have been duly investigated by SEBI.” Despite a detailed rebuttal by the SEBI, Rahul Gandhi places more trust in a regime change enthusiast George Soros and Ford Foundation-funded Hindenburg Research report than in the Indian stock market regulator.
In his video message, Rahul Gandhi asked if investors lost their money since the ‘umpire’ is compromised who will be responsible, Madhabi Buch, Adani or PM Modi. Since the market reacted maturely to the US short-seller’s fresh allegations, it is imperative to ask if the investors incur losses due to his and the opposition’s fearmongering just to attack the Modi government will he take the responsibility?
Rahul Gandhi risks alienating not only the business sector but also common people who benefit from a strong and stable economy by spreading misinformation about India’s growth story and attacking individuals who have made important contributions to the country’s economic rise. The market’s stability, contrary to the expectations suggests that Gandhi’s tactic has backfired as people saw it as blatant fearmongering rather than constructive criticism, particularly because his financial gains from his stocks appear to contradict the very apprehensions he is stoking.
