The Congress on Saturday alleged that the Narendra Modi government had written off nearly ₹8 lakh crore bad loans and demanded that it should reveal the names of the corporates whose debts were waived off.
Citing a Credit Suisse report that purportedly said the Modi government had waived loans worth ₹7,77,800 crore, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that “crony capitaist friends were given a bonanza in five years”.
“Modi government can waive loans of ₹7,77,800 crore in 5 years of crony friends, why no debt relief to India’s farmers? Who is responsible for safety of people’s money in banks?” asked Mr. Surjewala.
“Shocking state of bank loan waivers, NPAs & impaired banking assets exposed by Credit Suisse report! Since 2014, Modi government has given super-sized bank loan waivers worth ₹7,77,800 crore!”he said in another tweet.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, at the party’s media briefing, said the government should come clean on who benefited from the waivers.
Three questions
“We, through you, have three big demands of this government. First, make public the names of borrowers whose credits have been written-off. I think as a country, we deserve to know. The second and more important demand also is to set-up a high powered committee to review the pace and method at which credit write-off has happened and the third, do a review of the financial viability of the banking sector,” Ms. Shrinate told reporters.
The Congress argued that unless the banking sector improved and credit off-take improved, economic recovery would be difficult.
