Cong wants debate on state of economy under UPA, BJP
NEWDELHI: The Congress on Tuesday challenged the BJP to hold a debate on the state of economy under the UPA’S 10-year rule and the NDA’S four years even as it asked the Modi government to direct all the banks to disclose complete details about non-performing assets (NPAS) and instances of fraud.
The party also took umbrage at billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi’s purported letter to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in which he displays his “arrogance”. The Congress asked from where does a man who has defrauded the banks of thousands of crores of rupees get the “strength” to write such letters.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg. The banking sector is in serious trouble. The government is trying to obfuscate the facts. They are trying to hide the enormity of the crisis which is afflicting the banking sector,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters.
He asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister
Arun Jaitley to come clean on facts and direct public and private sector banks to make public all the details about NPAS and bank frauds. “Nothing short of a full disclosure, a full and complete disclosure, will now satisfy this country,” Tewari said.
The Opposition parties are set to raise the issue when the budget session resumes on March 5. The Congress, Left and the Trinamool Congress have not ruled out a united show where all parties would demand a joint parliamentary
probe into the case.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi, too, asked the PM to bring back Nirav. “I would like to request this Modi (Prime Minister), on behalf of all of us, to bring back the other (Nirav) Modi when he goes on another of his many foreign trips. We will all be very grateful as a nation to get our hard-earned money back,” Gandhi said while launching the second leg of his campaign ahead of the February 27 Meghalaya assembly elections.