Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala responded to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala hit back at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday afternoon, hours after a 13-tweet rebuttal to party leader Rahul Gandhi and his attempt to "mislead people" with allegations about the centre and "wilful defaulters, bad loans and write-offs" in connection with fugitive tycoons like Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi.
"To mislead or misstate facts, while holding the august office of Finance Minister, is most unfair, Nirmala Sitharamanji," Mr Surjewala tweeted, pointing to an apparent discrepancy in the amount of money reportedly recovered from the wanted trio of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya.
In his tweet Mr Surjewala wrote: "You tweeted that Rs 2,780.50 crore had been recovered from Modi-Choksi-Mallya. On March 16, 2020, parliament was told that the Enforcement Directorate had recovered only Rs 96.93 crore in five years under PMLA-FEMA!"
In a series of tweets Mr Surjewala also countered Ms Sitharaman's statements by insisting the Finance Minister only needed to give a "simple answer" to four questions.
"1. Why has Modi government written off bank loans worth Rs 6,66,000 crore between 2014/15 and 2019/20? 2. Is RBI's RTI reply dated April 24, 2020, of bank loans write off of Rs 68,607 crore wrong or right?" he asked.
"3. Why is Modi government writing off bank loans of absconders and fraudsters like Nirav Modi+Mehul Choksi (Rs 8,048 crore), Jatin Mehta (Rs 6,038 crore), Mallya (Rs 1,943 crore) and others as per RBI's RTI reply of April 24, 2020? 4. Who permitted such huge write offs of bank loans and defaulters and why?" Mr Surjewala added.
On Tuesday Rahul Gandhi cornered the government after the RBI released a list of 50 wilful defaulters accused of cheating Indian banks. Mr Gandhi accused the BJP of "hiding" the list from parliament because it included friends of the ruling party.
The Congress and Mr Gandhi have alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government had "waived" Rs 68,607 crore in loans by the people on the list, including Mr Modi, Mr Choksi and Mr Mallya.
In her response - a series of tweets late that night - Ms Sitharaman accused the Congress of "sensationalising facts by taking them out of context".
She said that between 2009/10 and 2013/14, scheduled commercial banks had written off Rs 1,45,226 crore. She also said provisions for non-performing assets (NPAs) were in accordance with RBI rules and "banks continue to pursue recovery" despite the NPA being written off in full.
A "write-off" is an accounting term used to denote assets whose value becomes zero. Written-off loans refer to debt factored as a loss even though the lender may continue attempts to recover it.
In her tweets the Finance Minister provided updates on the Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya cases; Mr Modi and Mr Mallya absconded to the United Kingdom and Mr Choksi is in the Caribbean island of Antigua.
"9,967 recovery suits, 3,515 FIRs, invoking Fugitive Amendment Act in cases are on now. Total value of attachment and seizures in the cases of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya: Rs 18,332.7 crore," she said, stressing that the Narendra Modi government was pursuing them.
Ms Sitharaman also hit out at "well-connected promoters who benefitted from the UPA's phone banking" inviting a retort from former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who questioned the government's decision to write off loans owed by Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya.
"One is not denying such a rule that can be applied to a wilful defaulter. We are asking, these are fugitives and they have left the country and are absconding. Why are you applying this rule to Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya," he asked.
The former Finance Minister said "when they are fugitives, the technical rule in the book should not be applied to them. That is my view".
The Indian banking system is reeling under bad debts worth more than Rs 10 lakh crore, according to news agency Reuters. This has been brought into sharp focus in recent years after several billionaires fled the country to escape prosecution and disastrous financial crises at high-profile institutions.
While the opposition has questioned the proximity of the BJP to the rogue businesses and their owners, the government has blamed most of the scandals on the Congress-led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) that was in power before 2014, saying it had only helped uncover the scams.
With input from PTI