Blame game over PNB fraud

It is UPA scam, says BJP

After Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Bhartiya Janata Party on Friday fielded Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar to accuse the previous Congressled UPA government for the bank scam unearthed now.

Javadekar even went to the extent of accusing Congress President Rahul Gandhi forcing the Allahabad Bank to sanction a loan to Nirav Modi after visiting his jewellery exhibition in a Delhi hotel on September 13, 2013.

He told a Press conference that it certainly is a bank scam but not a scam of the Modi government as the Congress is trying to project. He endorsed the Law Minister’s stand that it started during the UPA regime in 2011 and said the government must get credit for bringing this scam to light.

Javadekar also referred to a statement by Dinesh Dubey who had to resign as the director of the Allahabad Bank due to pressure brought on him during the UPA regime.

“I had sent a dissent note against #GitanjaliGems to the Govt and RBI in 2013, but to no avail. I was directed that this loan has to be approved, I was being pressurised so I resigned,” Dubey told a news agency ANI.

Javadekar said Dubey had opposed the loan to the firm of Mehul Choksi, who is one of the accused in the PNB scam. He claimed then finance secretary during the UPA regime had forced Dubey to resign instead of taking action on his complaint of undue pressure. “We are asking who pressurised the Finance Secretary to pressurise Dinesh Dubey,” he asked, wondering if it were not Rahul who was impressed by the jewellery exhibition.

“All the non-performing assets (NPAs), the wrongful distribution of loans, among others were all passed down to us by the UPA government and the latest bank fraud is one that came to light when the current government decided to clean the entire banking system,” he said.

Asserting that the entire banking system had failed during the UPA time, Javadekar said this scam also remained under the carpet between 2011 and 2014, and it came to light after the NDA government tightened the banking norms.

Moreover, he said the government has allowed all enforcement agencies to speedup the investigations.