The Congress, citing the crisis in Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS), has alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has systematically demolished the foundations of the banking and financial services sectors of the country in the last four and a half years.
Party spokesman Gaurav Vallabh said here on Saturday that IL&FS crisis is the latest episode in this ‘Financial Scam Management’ series of the Narendra Modi Government. "To cover its massive financial sins, Modi Government’s modus operandi is to bail out corporate entities by using profit making Public Sector Undertakings, thereby jeopardising the savings of crores of Indians. We have seen how ONGC was used to cover up the GSPC Scam, how LIC is bailing out a loss making IDBI Bank and now how LIC and SBI are being used to bail out a 60 per cent privately held corporate entity i.e IL& FS," Vallabh said in a statement.
He accused the IL&FS management of indulging in gold plating of contracts through their favored associates. "Management is diverting IL&FS business to their personal entities siphoning off the funds, causing huge losses to Banks, Financial Institutions and shareholders," he said.
The party demanded that the role of PM Modi in the crisis needs to be seriously probed. "Proposed bail out of IL&FS by LIC and SBI is just another classic example of how LIC and SBI are being forced by PM Modi for pilfering common man’s as well as public money by investing in a company whose top management has cheated millions of stakeholders by their fraudulent practices. Why is the Modi Govt jeopardising the savings of 38 crore LIC holders and crores of SBI depositors by burdening them with ₹7 500 Cr ‘Band-Aid Package’ for IL&FS, which will lead to exposing to the entire ₹ 91,000 Cr debt of IL&FS?" he asked.