Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar on Saturday accused the Congress party of sharing an "old and strong" bond with fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi.
Referring to a UK-based daily's report which confirmed that Nirav Modi was spotted walking freely on London streets, he said: "Now Congress workers must be happy to see him hale and hearty in London. They must be satisfied to see that the person, whom they gave shelter and allowed to flourish, is now living a happy life in UK," he quipped.
Javadekar accused the Congress government of sheltering defaulters during its tenure and said: "Thieves loved staying back in India and never ever thought of running away under the Congress rule. They felt safe and indulged in rampant loot under the protection of the then government."
However, soon after the Narendra Modi government came in, there was fear among the thieves, he said, adding that this government is determined to bring all those defaulters back who had fled India fearing the worst. "We are confiscating the properties of the defaulters through stringent laws.
"However, surprisingly, the thief is now scolding the watchman in India," Javadekar said pointing to Rahul Gandhi, who has been calling Modi as thief in his public meetings.
He stated that Congress President Rahul Gandhi on September 13, 2013 went to attend one of his programmes in Nirav Modi's company, and soon after the Allahabad Bank sanctioned a loan worth Rs 1,550 crore to him.
Nirav Modi, and his uncle and owner of retail jewellery company Gitanjali Group, Mehul Chowksy, both benefited with then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's 80:20 gold scheme, he said.
"Even Vijay Mallya was given protection under the Congress regime. At a time when he owed Rs 1,457 crore to the nation, an additional Rs 1,500-crore loan was given to him," the Minister alleged.
"In 2008, the total bank loan was Rs 15 lakh crore under the first tenure of Congress government which went up to Rs 52 lakh crore in their next term. The Congress party also gave huge loans to other thieves and allowed them to loot the nation.
"Surprisingly, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh advocated for Vijay Mallya both in and out of Parliament and tried to save his sinking private airline which was in loss owing to the 'karma' of its management. He coined a new term -- Restructuring -- at that time (to help Mallya)," Javadekar added.
On Friday, Nirav Modi's illegal bungalow was demolished in Alibaug. In Hong Kong, his property worth Rs 250 crore was also seized. Also his properties running into crores of rupees were seized across India," he said.
Javadekar added that the BJP-led NDA government brought Michael Christian, Deepak Talwar and Rajeev Saxena -- accused in AgustaWestland deal -- back to India and will also bring Mallya soon, said Javadekar.
--IANS
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