New Delhi: The political slugfest over the PNB scam continued unabated with the Congress on Saturday launching a fresh attack on the Narendra Modi government, while finance minister Arun Jaitley sought to shift the entire blame for the recent loan scandals on the laxity of banking regulators and auditors.
Stepping up pressure on the NDA government, Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “Under ModiJi’s ‘Jan Dhan Loot Yojana’, another scam! Rs 390 crore, involving a Delhi-based jeweller. Same modus operandi as Nirav Modi. Fake LOUs. Predictably, like Mallya and Nirav, this promoter too has disappeared while the government looked the other way.”
Mr Gandhi slammed the government for its inability to prevent the latest Rs 390 crore bank loan fraud to hit Oriental Bank of Commerce in which a jeweller used the same modus operandi as the PNB fraud accused Nirav Modi.
The Congress, which plans to raise the recent loan frauds in the upcoming session of Parliament, demanded that Prime Minister fix accountability of the finance ministry, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the management of defaulting banks within 60 days.
Mr Gandhi’s party colleague Kapil Sibal also took a dig at Mr Modi’s electoral promise of guarding public money from looters by serving as an able watchman.
“The Prime Minister is the most expensive chaukidar we have. Why is all this happening under his nose?” asked Mr Sibal.
The CBI on Friday booked the firm Dwarka Das Seth International Pvt. Ltd. for an alleged bank loan fraud of Rs 389.85 crore towards Oriental Bank of Commerce. The Congress demanded to know that the CBI had registered the case against the company, and Sabhya Seth, Reeta Seth, Krishna Kumar Singh, Ravi Singh — all directors of the firm — and another company named Dwarka Das Seth SEZ Incorporation, six months after the public sector bank had filed a complaint with the agency.
Countering the Opposition party’s attacks, Mr Jaitley sought to shift the onus for loan frauds on the banks, claiming that inadequate oversight by regulators and auditors as well as sloppy bank management resulted in the Rs 11,400 crore fraud at PNB.
“Regulators have a very important function. Regulators ultimately decide the rules of the game and regulators have to have a third-eye which is to be perpetually be open. But unfortunately, in the Indian system, we politicians are accountable, the regulators are not,” Mr Jaitley said, adding that if needed, the law will be tightened to punish fraudsters.
Breaking his silence over the '11,400 crore fraud in PNB, Mr Modi on Friday warned of stringent action against those involved in financial irregularities and said loot of public money will not be tolerated.
Sensing an opportunity to flog the Modi government over he loan frauds, the Congress has kept four demands before the Prime Minister.
Mr Sibal said, “The Prime Minister should assure the nation that Swift communication system all banks will be connected to their core banking system in 30 days.”
Banks across the world use Swift or Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, a messaging network for securely transmitting information and instructions for all financial transactions through a standardized system of codes. The maker keys in the message in the system, the checker checks it and, at the third stage, the verifier transmits it after he is convinced of its genuineness.
Mr Sibal also demanded that Mr Modi should also assure the country that the RBI will conduct a forensic audit of all Swift communications and swift messages matching them with underlying transactions within 60 days and that a report will be made public.
