New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on major banking scams unearthed in the country over the last few days and termed him the "most expensive chowkidar" in the world.
Demanding a probe by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) into the alleged Rs 11,300 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, the party demanded that the accountability of the Finance Ministry, the RBI and the management of defaulting banks must be fixed in the next 60 days.
"Modiji used to give a statement everyday against the Congress when a (2G) scam worth Rs 1.76 lakh crore was alleged during the UPA regime.
"That was a presumptive loss. Later, the court said there was no scam at all," senior party leader Kapil Sibal said at a media briefing.
Referring to the banking frauds by diamond jeweller Nirav Modi (worth Rs 11,300 crore) and others (Rotomac loan default worth over Rs 3,000 crore) as "actual" losses, he said: "Why is he (Prime Minister) silent now?"
Modi had spoken about the bank fraud for the first time on Friday at the ET Global Business Summit saying government would take "stern action" against irregulaties.
Sibal said: "The country has faced a loss of around Rs 21,000 crore and other banking frauds will also emerge in the coming days. Another Rs 390 crore OBC (Oriental Bank of Commerce) scam has also come out."
"He (Narendra Modi) gets a house, a plane; he is the most expensive watchman in the world," he added.
The former Union Minister said that the Prime Minister should explain why these scamsters "gained" while the nation faced losses under his watch.
"Several leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party have connections with these scamsters, who have left the country," he said, asking how Nirav Modi was allowed to escape.
Starting his briefing with a peom, Sibal said: "The banking system is adrift, core banking had escaped the SWIFT, depositors are truly miffed, Why was Nirav given this gift?"
"The time has come to explain, the nation lost, tell us who gained!," he added.
The party also demanded that the Swift communication system of all banks will be connected to their core banking system in 30 days, a check on all Swift messages in the last five years and called on the Prime Minister to assure the people on this.
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