HAL stocks soar: BJP attacks Rahul Gandhi for ‘fake’ campaign against PM Modi

NEW DELHI: With the aerospace and defence company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) shares registering impressive growth, the BJP has hit Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hard for running a campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing the latter of weakening the public sector company.
According to a report by news agency ANI, the shares of HAL have shown a fourfold jump over the past five years.
Reacting to the reports, BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya came down heavily on Rahul. He said, “Rahul Gandhi is dangerous. He is poorly read and often peddles #FakeNarrative, with brazen disdain for its impact on the society. In 2019, Rahul Gandhi ran a campaign, blaming PM Modi for destroying HAL. Truth is that in the last five years, HAL’s stock price has gone up five times!”
Malviya further said, “Similarly, Congress and its ecosystem whined about SBI and LIC being damaged. SBI’s profit was up 59% in last FY, whereas LIC saw an 800% jump in its profitability.”
The BJP leader alleged that these “fake campaigns” were run to target PM Modi and his government and also to weaken people’s faith in public institutions, so that their “crony friends” can benefit in multiple ways.

Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Rahul had run a massive campaign against Modi accusing him of selling HAL and other public sector units (PSUs) to his “suit-boot friends”. The campaign included calling PM Modi “Chowkidar chor hai” (the watchman is a thief).
On October 13, 2018, he visited HAL’s headquarters in Bengaluru and interacted with 100 working and former employees of the state-run company for an hour. He said the Modi government has "insulted, hurt and destroyed" the future of the public sector company by depriving it of the offset contract with the French aircraft manufacturer Dassault.
Rahul questioned the credibility and experience of the private company that got the Rs 30,000-crore offset contract.
He accused the then defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman of "lying" to the nation and misleading the people. He alleged that she rushed to Paris to “cover up” the alleged irregularities in the deal.
Rahul said firms such as HAL, ISRO and DRDO are "temples of modern India" and accused the Modi government of indulging in corruption and destroying them.
The former MP announced that the Congress will fight this on the streets of India.
In January 2019, few months before the last Lok Sabha election, the Congress leader accused Modi of "weakening" HAL to help his "suit-boot" friend.
His allegation came following a media report which claimed that HAL was struggling with poor financial health and had been compelled to borrow money in order to pay salaries to its employees.
Rahul said this should not come as a surprise. Rafale had been taken away from HAL, and now to complete the job, the suit-boot friend needs people who are in HAL. Without weakening HAL, this work cannot be done. The chowkidar (watchman) is being true to his friendship, he has nothing to do with the country's good or bad, he added.
The Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in the 2019 election despite running the campaign.
Meanwhile, the shares of the premier aerospace and defence Indian company surged amidst a push for indigenous defence manufacturing in the country. HAL has now emerged as a formidable player in the bourses.
Prices of the public sector aerospace and defence company's stock shares are currently trading at Rs 3904.85 against Rs 800 in the year 2018.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar had recently tweeted, “During PM Narendra Modi's tenure, various government public sector units, banks and other entities have shown significant growth, expansion, and competitiveness akin to the remarkable five-fold increase in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited shares.”