Let me first recap the stagnation of your party over the past 15 years. I’m sure you and your trusted advisors are already aware of this. But for the benefit of aam aadmi like us, it is worth repeating here.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, which also proved to be the best for your party in many years, the Congress secured a total of 11.9 crore votes. The total number of electors at that time stood at 71.7 crore. While the number of voters has grown by a staggering 26.4 crore since then, Congress’s votes have inched up by only 1.76 crore over the past 15 years. In contrast, your rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has seen its votes tally nearly trebling—from 7.8 crore in the 2009 elections to 23.6 crore in 2024. Does this ever bother you? Do you have a plan to address it?
You are free to blame the BJP’s divisive politics and the “Suit Boot ki Sarkar” they have allegedly promoted since 2014. You have every right to raise the spectre of “Samvidhan Khatre Mein Hai” (the Constitution is in danger). But does this help you regain lost ground? Does it prevent your party’s accelerated decline? If it does, you should go full throttle and use it to its maximum potential.
The fact is, your constant name-calling and attacks on India’s business and consumer sentiment have directly impacted the financial well-being of people like us. How can you expect the 22 crore Indians to take you seriously when you continue to pose a threat to their financial security—a risk that now seems even greater than geopolitical tensions or macroeconomic uncertainties?
Let me humbly clarify that the reference to “22 crore Indians” is not a figment of my imagination. You need to only visit the website of the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) to understand what I am alluding to.
The homepage of the website states: “The total number of accounts (or folios, as they are called in mutual fund parlance) as of November 30, 2024, stood at 22.08 crore (220.8 million). Of these, the number of folios under Equity, Hybrid, and Solution-Oriented Schemes, where the maximum investment comes from the retail segment, stood at about 17.55 crore.” Of these 17.5 crore retail investors, many invest Rs 100 to Rs 500 every month, hoping to build a decent corpus they can rely on when going gets tough. These 17.5 crore aam aadmi, along with some others, have helped increase assets under management (AUM) with mutual fund houses from just Rs 10 lakh crore in May 2014 to a staggering Rs 68.08 lakh crore today.
A massive Rs 68.08 lakh crore worth of investments, largely from the aam aadmi, are at risk due to your stubborn refusal to course-correct and focus on issues that can help these investments grow significantly. And that is just one part of the broader retail investment story.
You need to look no further than the National Stock Exchange’s November 2024 Market Pulse. Inside the report is a table detailing the current value of individual investments in the stock market. Based on the data provided by the NSE, my calculations show that the value of small investors’ holdings in the market stands at a staggering Rs 45 lakh crore. If you add the two figures—assets under management with mutual funds and the value of direct exposure—the total exceeds Rs 110 lakh crore.
Rahul Sir, I urge you to take a look at the following lines from the NSE Market Pulse report: “The median age of registered individual investors at the NSE has fallen by six years, from 38 years in March 2018 to 32 years in October 2024, with the mean age dropping from 41.2 years to 35.7 years during this period. This reflects the influx of younger investors into the market over the last few years. The share of investors in the under-30 age group increased from 22.9% in March 2018 to 39.9% in October 2024, as more young investors enter the market.”
Now, consider these facts alongside other key figures: at least 22 crore people with exposure to the stock market, their investments valued at Rs 113 lakh crore, the BJP’s total vote count in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at 23.6 crore; Congress’s stagnation during the years when India’s equity culture grew. Do these tell a story? Do they suggest something about the apparent apathy of young and new voters towards your party? I implore you to make a genuine effort to connect the dots.
I wonder why you have chosen to remain indifferent to the new reality unfolding before our eyes. The growing equity culture in India is something to be celebrated. I humbly urge you to make a choice: either continue to be a risk to this growing equity culture and face the Congress’s marginalisation, or do everything in your power to make the party’s leadership understand the potential of this shift in people’s behaviour.
Let me end with a rather filmy tale. A cop, obsessed with the infallibility of his instincts, doesn’t hesitate to ruin lives just to keep his record intact. In a typical filmy fashion, he is proven right after years—but not before inflicting considerable damage on the accused. In the end, all that the police officer is left with is regret—and plenty of it.
(The author is Consulting Editor, NDTV)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
