Cong accuses Modi govt of bringing financial anarchy

The Congress today accused the Narendra Modi government of bringing "financial anarchy" and said "fleecing and flying" had become buzzwords with people such as Nirav Modi escaping the country after indulging in multi-crore scams.

The party also alleged that deposits of 38 crore policyholders had been jeopardised after the government "forced" the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) to buy IDBI Bank, which has non-performing assets (NPA) of about Rs 56,000 crore and its last quarter losses touched Rs 5,700 crore.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala claimed that banking scams under this government had crossed Rs 70,000 crore with promoters of a Faridabad-based group escaping the country after owing banks Rs 7,000 crore.

"How will Prime Minister Narendra Modi recover this money from the fraudsters? Why did the banks not refer the matter of huge default by this group to the CBI, ED, RBI or other agencies, despite all the loans becoming NPA by the end of FY (financial year) 2015-16?" he asked.

This government has brought "financial anarchy and economic mismanagement", he said.

He also asked as to where the country's finance minister was as websites of the PMO and the Finance Ministry had different names.

"The real finance minister of India. Who is it? Either PMO is lying or Finance Ministry is lying. Let this issue be sorted out first. Till such confusion remains even as to who is the finance minister, naturally people's money would be in peril and that is what they are doing by forcing the hand of LIC to buy the IDBI Bank as also letting scams worth Rs 7,000 crore go scot-free," Surjewala said in a statement.

"Every time somebody fleeces bank's money, he or she is permitted to go scot free. So 'fleece and fly' has become the buzzword under the Narendra Modi government, " he said.

Surjewala claimed that due to local protests and issues raised by Congress leaders, one of the promoters of the group was arrested on April 5, but three other accused fled the country.

"This is a classic pattern of the Modi government -- permitting the accused to Fleece and Fly. Whistleblowers have presented a list of 251 shell companies that were used for money laundering," he said.

The Congress leader alleged that criminal conspiracy and fraud by the Faridabad-based company had resulted in 113 cases registered against them.

"The bad loans ratio of Indian banks is close to 28 per cent. IDBI Bank, whose NPAs amount to Rs 55588.26 crore, is the worst performing public sector bank. The Q4 loss for 2017-18 of Indian banks is approximately Rs 90,000 crore," he said.

"The Modi government is also jeopardising 38 crore LIC policyholders by forcing it to purchase the failing IDBI Bank, despite it being worst-performing public sector bank," Surjewala said.

He asked, "Why has the PMO, Finance Ministry, RBI, CBI, SEBI, SFIO, ED, CVC, state governments, banks and other government agencies not taken cognisance of a scam worth Rs 6978.72 crore."

The Congress leader also asked why 16 banks have not referred the matter of huge default by the Faridabad-based group to the CBI, ED, RBI and other agencies, despite all of them becoming NPA at the end of the 2015-16 fiscal.

"Is there a special relationship between the Narendra Modi and Khattar (Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar) government and the group which is a reason for inaction by authorities," he said.