The Congress on Saturday decided to press for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the multi-crore PNB scam involving jewellery designer Nirav Modi even as it continued with its stinging attacks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Government on the issue.
Making its intentions clear that the Congress will be unrelenting in its attack and cornering the Government on the issue in Parliament when the Budget Session resumes in the first week of March, the party’s steering committee meeting, chaired by party chief Rahul Gandhi, called upon the Prime Minister to apprise the nation of complete facts about the ‘Bank Scam’ instead of remaining a silent spectator.
“It must be brought out as to how the entire banking system was duped through ‘letters of Understanding’ under the watch of the Modi Government and why were all authorities, including Finance Ministry, FIU, SFIO, ED, CBI and others found wanting in preventing loss to public exchequer,” the party resolved while demanding a JPC probe.
It noted that over the last 45 months, the BJP Government has shown ‘zero action’ and ‘zero result’ on bringing back black money stashed abroad as promised by the Prime Minister and even in taking action against accused in multiple corruption scams that have been exposed. ‘Zero Tolerance for Corruption’ has become ‘Zero Tolerance for Accountability on Corruption’, it stated.
“The great escape of lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and dozens of others accused of banking and other frauds is a case in point. Patent and latent complicity at the highest echelons of power is writ large,” said the statement.
Following the meeting, Rahul targeted the Prime Minister saying he taught children how to take exams for 1.5 hours but failed to tell the country about the person responsible for the Rs 22,000-crore scam. His party charged the Centre that the fraud could not have been done without a high-level protection and hit out at the PM saying he was “sleeping” as the country’s watchman and thieves were fleeing with the nation’s wealth.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reiterated the BJP’s response saying it was a UPA scam and the Congress was spreading lies to mislead the public. She said it was under the NDA Government that the alleged scams committed during the UPA rule were being unearthed. In Mumbai, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said the Congress’ attack would boomerang even as he alleged that the party had destroyed the banking systems when it was in power.
Rahul, who referred to the PM’s ‘Pariksha pe charcha’, accused the Central Government of constantly refusing to accept its responsibility and alleged that the Prime Minister was “destroying” the economy through his actions. The Congress accused the Prime Minister of institutionalising “crony capitalism”.
“It must have been known by the people in Government beforehand otherwise it is not possible. PM will have to come forward and answer questions,” Rahul, who has been taking the PM head on in recent times, asserted while addressing mediapersons. He also said while the Defence Minister and Social Justice Minister were briefing on the issue, “the FM and the PM, who are responsible, have not said anything about it”.
“The PM should come out and say what has happened (on Nirav Modi) and whyIJ And what was he doing about it,” Rahul said even as he rejected the BJP charge that he had personal ties with Nirav Modi and had attended his promotional event. “They are trying to divert the issue,” he asserted.
Rahul charged that it all started with the Prime Minister banning currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 on November 8, 2016, “when he took out all public money and put it into the banking system”. The Congress chief alleged that businessman Nirav Modi has fled the country with Rs 20,000 crore of that public money.
Sitharaman said Nirav Modi may have been able to run away from the country, but the Government is taking action against him, and claimed that it will “surely nab him”. “The original sin took place during the Congress regime. It multiplied, it took traction under the Congress regime. We are not conspiring to help scamsters flee the country, but the BJP Government is catching them instead,” she said.
Earlier, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal also accused the Prime Minister and his Government of bringing the economy to its knees, and warned that the country’s image would get a beating internationally under him. He also took a dig at Modi, alleging that while he was “sleeping” as the country’s watchman, thieves were fleeing with the nation’s wealth.