The Congress on Wednesday attacked the government over the issue of bad loans, accusing it of weakening the entire banking architecture fiscally and imprudently in the name of cleaning the system.
The party was responding to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's tweet on Tuesday night in which she accused the Congress and its leaders of "misleading" people on loan write-offs.
"Nirmala Sitharaman ji, Cleaning the Banks of people's money by righting off loans of absconders and fraudsters is not called 'cleaning the system', Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a tweet.
"It's called weakening the entire Bank architecture fiscally and imprudently, if not maliciously," he said
In a tweet, the finance minister had accused Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Surjewala of attempting to mislead people in a brazen manner.
"Typical to congress, they resort to sensationalising facts by taking them out of context," she had said.
Hitting back, Surjewala demanded simple answers from Sitharaman instead of "twisting facts".
"Simple answer that FM, Smt @nsitharaman needs to give instead of twisting facts-:Why has Modi Govt written off Bank Loans worth ₹6,66,000 Cr between 2014-15 & 2019-20? Is RBI's RTI reply dated 24th April, 2020 of Bank loans write off of Rs 68,607 Crore wrong or right," he asked.
"Why is Modi Govt righting off Bank Loans of absconders & fraudsters like Nirav Modi+Mehul Choksi(Rs 8,048 CR), Jatin Mehta(Rs 6,038 CR), Mallya(Rs 1,943 CR) & others as per RBI's RTI reply of 24/4/2020?
"Who permitted such huge write offs of Bank loans of defaulters & why" Surjewala asked the finance minister.
The RBI released a list of 50 top bank loan defaulters in the country in an RTI reply.
Sitharaman had also said "Congress and Shri.Rahul Gandhi should introspect why they fail to play a constructive role in cleaning up the system. Neither while in power, nor while in the opposition has the Congress shown any commitment or inclination to stop corruption and cronyism."
The finance minister also claimed that "Earlier, on 18.11.2019, in the Lok Sabha for an unstarred Question no:52, a list of “Borrowers flagged as wilful defaulter by Public Sector Banks under CRILIC reporting as on 30.09.2019 (For borrowers with exposure of Rs. 5 crore and above, Global operations) was provided."