Bring out white paper on banking system, says Manish Tewari

New Delhi: Political slugfest over Nirav Modi continued on Sunday with the Congress alleging “fraudsters” were linked to the “highest echelons” of the BJP-led NDA. The Congress challenged the government to bring out a white paper on the banking system which it said had witnessed scams involving over Rs 61,000 crore in the last five years. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, “Bank frauds are tumbling out of the closet faster than you can say Jack Robinson.”

Referring to the Rs 11,400-crore scam in which billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB), Mr Tewari added while the “Modi-Choksi tango” was still going on, reports had emerged about another banking fraud.

Vikram Kothari, the owner of Rotomac pens, owes Rs 800 crore to a consortium of Indian banks and was now untraceable, he said. The Congress further demanded that BJP-led NDA should direct all banks to publish and declare the name of fraudsters and details related to NPAs ( non-performing assets). The total NPAs of all public and private banks were worth Rs 8,36,782 crore as of September, 2017.

“It is hilarious that PNB, where this scam happened, won the vigilant award for 2016-17,” Mr Tewari said, adding that this scam raised important question about the lack of transparency in the government. Blaming the current government for NPAs, Mr Tewari  said, “Data released by the RBI show that Rs 61,260 crore banking frauds have taken place in the last five years, and out of these five years, the BJP-led NDA has been in power for four years. The linkages between these alleged fraudsters and the highest echelons of the BJP raise some very serious questions about the health of the Indian economy.”

Since the alleged Nirav Modi scam of LoU’s has broken, the Congress has been attacking the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The party alleged that the government sleeps while the defaulters run abroad not to return back.