In an RTI reply, it has come to light that the Reserve Bank of India has written off a whopping 68,607 crore rupees from the country’s top 50 wilful defaulters that include the likes of Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi heavily criticized the government for the move.
In a reply to the RTI filed by activist Saket Gokhale, the details were released by the apex bank of the country. In the details, the list of the top 50 defaulting firms and the subsequent amount has been released.
Rahul Gandhi, the Member of Parliament from Wayanad had asked the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to release the names of the wilful defaulters. After the RTI reply, Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter and wrote,
“In the parliament session, I had asked the finance minister to release the names of the top 50 wilful defaulters. The finance minister refused to answer me. Now Reserve Bank of India has released a list that has Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, and other ‘friends’ of the BJP. That is the reason they hesitated to release the list.”
संसद में मैंने एक सीधा सा प्रश्न पूछा था- मुझे देश के 50 सबसे बड़े बैंक चोरों के नाम बताइए।
वित्तमंत्री ने जवाब देने से मना कर दिया।
अब RBI ने नीरव मोदी, मेहुल चोकसी सहित भाजपा के ‘मित्रों’ के नाम बैंक चोरों की लिस्ट में डाले हैं।
इसीलिए संसद में इस सच को छुपाया गया। pic.twitter.com/xVAkxrxyVM
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 28, 2020
Union Minister assures Recovery
Responding to this, the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar, has taken a jibe at Gandhi and asked him to take tuition from P Chidamabaram to understand the difference between ‘writing off’ and ‘waiving off’. Javdekar released a video statement where he was seen saying,
“Today, I was taken aback by Rahul Gandhi’s comment that the Modi government has waived off 65,000 crore rupees. Not a single paisa has been waived off. Writing off is not waiving off. Chidambaram must take tuition and make him understand that this is not a waiver. Writing off is a process of accounting where account which is in default is taken off the book but it does not give him a clean chit or certificate that there are no dues. This process of writing off is a technical process to show the depositors the correct picture of banks. Therefore, this writing off doesn’t stop banks from taking actions and from pursuing recovery.”
The Union Minister further said that both Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya are left with no choice to come back to India and face the action. The minister also claimed that the major part has already been recovered.
Source: The Times of India
