Congress a 'national saboteur': Jaitley

Congress is a “national saboteur”, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley alleged and made public a letter written by former Union Minister K V Thomas to counter the Opposition party attack on the government taking over the debt-ridden infrastructure finance firm IL&FS.

“I am enclosing his letter. It demolishes every word that Rahul Gandhi and his coterie has been spreading. It may be advisable for Rahul Gandhi to get some ‘words of wisdom’ from Prof K V Thomas. The Congress party must remember that the days of crony capitalism are over. The NDA Government deals with such challenges objectively and professionally,” Jaitley wrote on his blog accusing the Opposition party of “spreading misinformation”.

The Finance Minister’s sharp riposte came as Congress went hammer and tongs against the Modi government for taking control of infrastructure finance firm, wondering whether the move was a cover-up of its mishandling of the situation.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Modi government was using public money to bail out the debt-ridden IL&FS.

Countering it, Jaitley said, in fact it is a section of the Congress leadership which has been urging me to enable investments in the IL&FS and save the company.

He said that Thomas, the former Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, had written to him as early as September 20 this year making such a request.

“The Congress party, for the last few days, has been busy spreading disinformation about the Government’s possible moves in relation to the private sector company IL&FS. The Congress is a national saboteur. It wants to sabotage India’s economy by allowing a situation in relation to a company to persist, expand and become unmanageable. It lacks statesmanship and vision,” Jaitley said.

“Was it a scam in 1987 when the IL&FS was promoted with the Central Bank of India having 50.5% shares and the UTI having 30.5% shares? Was it a scam in 2005 when LIC acquired 15% stake in IL&FS and in March, 2006 when it acquired another 11.10% stake in the IL&FS? In fact, LIC further bought 19.34 lakh shares in IL&FS in 2010.

“Do I start calling all these investments today a scam as per the perverted Rahul Gandhi school of thinking? From where has he invented a proposal for Rs 91,000 crore investment likely to take place by LIC and SBI in the IL&FS?,” Jaitley asked.