Modi ignored Rajan alert on bank fraud: Congress

The Congress on Tuesday hit back at the BJP government over revelations by former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan over NPAs of banks accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of inaction over high-profile cases of fraud that were brought to his notice.

The Congress said the BJP was “misreading” Rajan's report which clearly stated that the RBI had set up a fraud monitoring cell in the central bank in 2016 to coordinate early reporting of such cases with the investigating agencies.

Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said Rajan had sent Modi a list of high-profile cases with a request for coordinated action to bring atleast one or two to book.

“Raghuram Rajan has also indicted the Prime Minister of India and the Prime Minister's Office on the fraud being committed and fraudsters who were escaping,” Surjewala said, seeking to link the matter to the escape of PNB scam accused Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi to foreign shores.

The Congress leader also claimed that when the UPA demited office, the NPAs of banks stood at Rs 2.83 lakh crore which he contended was a “controllable situation”.

Surjewala said the bad loans under the Modi government ballooned by Rs 9.17 lakh crore to Rs 12 lakh crore.

“Who is responsible? Naturally, the failure of Modi-nomics and Jaitley-nomcis has decimated India’s economy, the banking system and people’s faith in the economy,” he said.

Surjewala also countered the Prime Minister's 'dial a loan' charge against the UPA. He claimed that the Prime Minister had devised a new formula called “wink a loan”.

“He looks and the banks grant loan to his crony capitalist friend. This Rs 9.17 lakh crore NPA is a result of ‘wink a loan’ formula,” the Congress leader charged.