Coronavirus | Congress questions ₹68,607 crore loan write-off

“Now the RBI has given the names of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and many of BJP’s ‘friends’ in the list of bank frauds.”

AICC spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala. File

The Congress on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ‘explain’ why his government has waived ₹68,607 crore worth of bank loans taken by the top 50 defaulters including Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya at a time when the country is fighting the coronavirus [COVID-19] pandemic .

The party cited a reply of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to an Right to Information (RTI) query Act and claimed that until September 2019, the government has waived loans worth ₹6.66 lakh crore since 2014.

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Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in a tweet said though the government had refused to his answer him in Parliament, the RBI has now put out the list, including the BJP’s friends.

“I asked a straight question in Parliament — state the names of the 50 top bank loan defaulters in the country. The Finance Minister refused to answer the question. Now the RBI has given the names of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and many of BJP’s ‘friends’ in the list of bank frauds. That is why this truth was held back from Parliament,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted in Hindi.

Addressing an online press conference, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, “This is a classic case of promoting the ‘dupe, deceive and depart’ policy of the Modi government, which can no longer be accepted and the Prime Minister has to answer.”

Mr Surjewala said while the entire country is fighting the coronavirus, the Centre doesn’t have money to pay to States but still decided write off ₹68,307 crore of defaulters.

“This reflects the misconceived priorities and dishonest intentions of the Modi government,” he said.