Congress leader and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram on Sunday responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s accusation that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had hidden the extent of non-performing assets and had given loans to dynasts despite knowing that the money would not be paid back.
“Let us assume that the prime minister is right when he says that loans given under UPA have turned bad,” Chidambaram said in a tweet. “How many of those loans were renewed or rolled over (that is ‘evergreened’) under NDA?”
Chidambaram asked why those loans had not been recalled if the government knew they would turn into non-performing assets. “How many loans and how much that were given after May 2014 have become non-performing assets?” the former finance minister asked. “This question was asked in Parliament but there is no answer so far.”
On Saturday, the prime minister said 12 of the biggest loan defaulters have an outstanding of Rs 1.75 lakh crore. Another 27 have Rs 1 lakh crore. “We never gave any loans to any of the 12 big defaulters,” he said, adding that action was being taken against the defaulters.
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