NPAs, Nirav Modi gifts of Cong govt, says law minister
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday mounted a blistering attack on Congress of daily inventing and spreading lies against the Modi government to unnecessarily create confusion and fear.
Soon after Parliament was adjourned for the day on the issue of the Opposition's demand for a probe into Punjab National Bank's scam, he told a press conference at BJP headquarters here that defrauding of the bank by Nirav Modi began in 2011 during the UPA rule.
Who doesn't know that another diamond merchant Jatin Mehta fled from India in 2012 swallowing crores of the bank money while the Congress is blaming the present government, he said, asserting that the truth is that his assets were confiscated twice by the Modi government.
He said the bank's nonNon-performing asset (NPA) crisis of the banks also relate to huge loans given to the industrialists close to the Congress during its 10-year rule and this was covered up by not showing it in the banks' balance sheets.
The bank advances tripled in six years from Rs 18.06 lakh crore in March 2008 to Rs 52.15 lakh crores in March 2014. Only 36% stressed assets of banks were identified as NPA in March 2014 but they shot up to 82% in June 2017 when the Modi government searched for the hidden NPAs, Prasad said.
He listed some recent lies and rumours concocted by the Congress to create confusion and fear:
• Levying of convenience fee charge on bank customers while truth is that it was not even discussed but it was run on WhatsApp to create people's distrust in the banking system at a time when Prime Minister Modi is asking the poor to join banks;
• A Congress survey on great hardships to be created
by introducing a 13-digit mobile number, while the truth is that it was meant for new Sim-based machine-to-machine communication;
• Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill on which questions were raised while it is still in the making with the purpose of securing people's money;
• False alarm bells on heavy presence of Chinese army in Doklam, an attempt to spread confusion and fear only to damage the country's self-confidence;
• Daily lies on the Rafale deal by the party of a family who had only done corruption in the defence deals while the fact is that the Congress sat on the fighter aircraft deal for 10 years compromising the country's security;
• Spread all kind of lies on GST to spread fear among traders while the fact is that it freed them from "tax terrorism" and brought relief to poor, lower and medium level families and
• Demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes was brought in the interest of the poor but attempts were made by the Congress and some affected persons to confuse the public at a time when the whole nation was engaged in its success to banish corruption.