Jaitley hits out at Rahul Gandhi, calls Congress a “national saboteur”
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while calling Congress a “national saboteur”, said that its trying to spread disinformation about the developments in debt-ridden IL&FS group. He said while a section of the party leadership has been insisting to facilitate investments in IL&FS, its chief Rahul Gandhi is claiming it is a scam.
The minister made public a letter written by Congress leader and former Union Minister KV Thomas to him on ways to bail out the debt-laden company, which has a long-term liability of around Rs 91,000 crore.
Arun Jaitley cited a letter from Congress leader K.V. Thomas, urging him to save IL&FS through investments, to slam Rahul Gandhi and accuse Congress of trying to sabotage the country’s economy.https://t.co/5GpfKFoMRn
— The Telegraph (@ttindia) October 2, 2018
Rahul Gandhi had previously attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi by saying that he was bailing out the IL&FS group using common man’s savings in LIC and the SBI.
In his letter, Thomas mentioned that to revive the firm Indian Institutional Investors like LIC, SBI, HDFC should support IL&FS and provide equity and debt of Rs 8,000 crores as requested by the company. He also wrote, “I hope you may initiate discussion with relevant ministries and departments to take necessary action as suitable to make sure that the Indian economy does not plunge into recession, protect investors both small and large and re-establish confidence to invest in infrastructure sector, which is crucial for our future.”
On this Jaitley responded that Rahul Gandhi should get some ‘words of wisdom’ from senior member of his party. He said, “Thomas’ letter demolishes every word that Rahul Gandhi and his coterie have been spreading.”
Jaitley accused Congress of trying to sabotage India’s economy by allowing a situation in relation to a company to persist, expand and become unmanageable.
“The financial institutions’ investment in any company –is it a ‘scam’ as Rahul Gandhi and his coterie are spreading? Was it a scam in 1987 when the IL&FS was promoted with the Central Bank of India having 50.5% shares and the UTI having 30.5% shares.”
“Was it a scam in 2005 when LIC acquired 15% stake in IL&FS and in March 2006 when it acquired another 11.10% stake in IL&FS? In fact, LIC further bought 19.34 lakh shares in IL&FS in 2010,” Jaitley wrote in a facebook post. He said Congress lacks statesmanship and vision.
