Image Source: THE TRIBUNE

The Congress-BJP slugfest, which began on Tuesday over the Reserve Bank of India’s write-off of Rs 68,000 crore in loans from top 50 defaulters, continued today morning as well. In a series of a dozen late-night tweets, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala of “misleading people in a brazen manner by sensationalising facts” and asked them to consult former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on finance-related issues. Surjewala hit back in the morning by accusing Sitharaman of twisting facts. Surjewala wanted to know why the government has written off bank loans worth Rs 6.6 lakh crore since it came to power. He also sought an answer on whether the RBI’s RTI reply dated April 24 of loans write-off of Rs 68,607 crore was wrong or right. Sitharaman pointed out that no loan was waived off. Upon full provisioning, banks write off the fully provided NPA but continue to pursue recovery against the borrower. No loan is waived off, she posted. Yet she sought to counter the Congress leaders on the same ground by counter-accusing the UPA government of writing off Rs 1.45 lakh crore in bad bank loans between 2009-10 and 2013-14. She said it was useful to recall the words of former RBI chief Raghuram Rajan that several 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... RBI could have raised more flags about the quality of lending. She then dissected the cases of fugitives Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya which include nearly 10,000 recovery suits and over 3,500 FIRs that have yielded Rs 18,332.7 crore in attachment and seizures from the trio.