Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi, the BJP on Wednesday, 29 April said the Congress leader should take "tuition" from his party colleague and former finance minister P Chidambaram to understand the difference between 'write-off' and 'waive-off', and asserted that the Modi government has not waived any loan of bank defaulters.
"Rahul Gandhi should take tuition from P Chidambaram on the difference between 'write-off' and 'waive-off'. The Narendra Modi government has not waived-off any loan. 'Write off' is a normal accounting process. It doesn't stop recovery or action against defaults," senior BJP leader and Union minister Prakash Javadekar said.
He said Gandhi has been trying for over two years to spread this confusion that the government has waived loans of businessmen who wilfully defaulted on bank loans.
Citing a list of top wilful bank loan defaulters given by the RBI in response to a RTI query, Gandhi had on Tuesday taken on the government, saying he was not given the answer when he had asked the same question in Parliament.
Taking a dig at the government, he said the list includes fugitive economic offenders like Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi, and many of BJP's "friends". Hitting back, Javadekar said the Congress leader should try to expand his understanding of issues.
The government, he asserted, has gone all out to bring the accused to justice and not waived even a single penny of loan.
Nirav Modi is in jail in London and Vijay Mallya has been left with no option but to return to India after rejection of his bail plea in the UK, the BJP leader said.
Authorities have seized Nirav Modi's assets and auctioned them, he said, highlighting the action against him.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that wilful defaulters were beneficiaries of 'phone banking' under the Congress-less UPA regime and the Modi government is chasing them to recover the dues.
Chidambaram’s Response To The BJP
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday, 29 April questioned this and asked the government why it had taken the technical loan write-off route for fugitives like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya.
Chidambaram said one cannot deny the rule that banks can write-off loans technically and recoveries can continue against wilful defaulters, but why was the rule applied to fugitives, who fled the country, after committing frauds.
"One is not denying such a rule that can be applied to a wilful defaulter. But, we are asking these are fugitives and they have left the country and are absconding. Why are you applying this rule to Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya," he said at press conference conducted through video conferencing.
The former finance minister said "when they are fugitives, the technical rule in the book should not be applied to them. That is my view".
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