First complaint made in 2015, not 2011: Rahul

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 17

Congress president Rahul Gandhi today led the party’s top-ranking steering committee in asking tough questions on the “Rs 22,000 crore banking scam” and alleged that a fraud of such order could not have been possible without top-level protection.

“Such a fraud cannot be done without high-level protection. The government knew beforehand of the scam. The PM took responsibility of protecting public money when he announced demonetisation. But he is silent on Nirav Modi escaping with Rs 22,000 crore. The PM will have to explain what happened, how it happened and what he proposes to make banks safe,” Rahul Gandhi said after chairing the Congress steering committee meeting which decided to hold the AICC Plenary Session in Delhi from March 16 to 18.

Although Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had offered to host the session in Mohali, the Congress decided on Delhi in view of the Budget Session of Parliament which will be on at the time of the event. The party also did not want to deflect attention from the Karnataka poll that would be due by then.

The steering committee also deliberated on the bank scam and stated, “The PM must apprise the nation of the facts instead of remaining silent as usual and of how the banking system was duped through Letters of Understanding; how this fraud escaped the eyes of auditors and investigators conducting statutory audit, internal audit, concurrent audit and RBI audit? The PM must tell the reasons for the failure of the fraud detection ability of the banking sector and the Finance Ministry. He must share with the nation the action taken by the PMO and other agencies of the government on complaints made on the scam starting May 7, 2015 and later.”

Congress parliamentary party leader Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Finance Minister Chidambaram also spoke with worry on the developments.

Rahul Gandhi later echoed those concerns saying “the PM has destroyed the economy with his moves starting with demonetisation”.

He also wondered why the PM, “who spent hours telling children how to take an exam, remains silent on Nirav running away with bank money”.

“The PMO knew of the scam in 2015. Why did it not respond? Social Justice Minister and Defence Minister are speaking on the issue. Why are the PM and FM, who are concerned with it, silent?” asked Rahul as the party released a list of 367 LOUs pertaining to the bank scam with all issued between 2017 and 2018.

The Congress chief trashed BJP’s charge that the scam is dated 2011. “The first complaint in the scam was made on May 7, 2015,” he noted.

Congress media head Randeep Surjewala today hinted at a possible go-by to elections for the constitution of the new Congress Working Committee by indicating that elections were an exception and nomination of CWC members by Congress chief a norm.

“Anyway, this matter was not discussed today," he said.