'Sensationalising Facts': Late at Night, Sitharaman Issues 13-Tweet Rebuttal to Rahul Gandhi's 'RBI List' Attack

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi's attack on Centre over RBI's list of 50 bank defaulters seems to have enraged Union finance ministry Nirmala Sitharaman, who in a series of late night tweets slammed the Congress leader for "misleading people in a brazen manner by sensationalising facts". She even advised Gandhi to take consultation from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on issues related to finance.

"Rahul Gandhi, MP (LS), and Randeep Singh Surjewala, spokesperson of Congress, have attempted to mislead people in a brazen manner. Typical to Congress, they resort to sensationalising facts by taking them out of context," Sitharaman tweeted around 11pm on Tuesday.

Gandhi had attacked the ruling BJP after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released a list of 50 wilful defaulters accused of cheating banks. These 50 defaulters included the companies of absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi and fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya.

"I asked a simple question in Parliament — tell me the names of 50 biggest bank scammers. Finance Minister refused to reply. Now RBI has put names of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and other BJP friends in the list. This is why they hid the truth from parliament," the Congress MP had tweeted in Hindi along with a video.

Sitharaman countered that between 2009-10 and 2013-14, scheduled commercial banks had written off Rs 1,45,226 crore. She said provisions are made for Non-Performing Assets according to a four-year provisioning cycle laid down by the RBI. "Upon full provisioning being done, banks write-off the fully provided NPA but continue to pursue recovery against the borrower. No loan is waived off," she wrote. "Those defaulters, who do not repay despite having the capacity to pay, divert or siphon-off funds, or dispose of secured assets without bank's permission are categorised as wilful defaulters. They are those well-connected promoters who benefitted from UPA's 'Phone banking'," Ms Sitharaman wrote. She quoted Raghuram Rajan, who was RBI Governor when the Congress was in power. "Useful to recall the words of Raghuram Rajan: A large number of bad loans originated in the period 2006-2008...Too many loans were made to well-connected promoters who have a history of defaulting on their loans...Public sector bankers continued financing promoters even while private sector banks were getting out. RBI could have raised more flags about the quality of lending..." Raghuram Rajan (said)... From 2015, PSBs (Public Sector Banks) were asked by the government to check all NPAs >50 crore for wilful default," Ms Sitharaman wrote.

The finance minister then went into the cases of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya.

Sitharaman said it was the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government which was pursuing these wilful defaulters. "9,967 recovery suits, 3,515 FIRs, invoking Fugitive Amendment Act in cases are on now. Total value of attachment and seizures in the cases of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya: Rs 18,332.7 crore," she said. "Bank-wise details of aggregate funded amount outstanding and amount technically/prudentially written off, pertaining to top fifty wilful defaulters was provided as an annex to the answer to Lok Sabha starred question *305 of Rahul Gandhi on 16.3.2020," the FM wrote. Sitharaman also mentioned that a list of "borrowers flagged as wilful defaulter by Public Sector Banks under CRILIC reporting as on September 30, 2019 (for borrowers with exposure of Rs 5 crore and above, global operations) was provided", on November 18, 2019, in the Lok Sabha. The finance minister stated that Congress and 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," Sitharaman further stated. Reacting to Sitharaman's retort in the morning, Randeep Surjewala accused her of twisting facts and mentioned a list of questions that he said the Centre should answer.