NEW DELHI: Returning the BJP fire that it favoured controversial industrialist Vijay Mallya, now declared ‘absconder’, get unsecured bank loans, the Congress on Monday accused the ruling dispensation of not only helping him jump legal action in India but also clinch an off-shore deal between Diageo, and his liquor company United Spirits.
Ex-PM Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P Chidambaram, present at the AICC to release a booklet ‘State of the Economy 2017’ a day before the Economic Survey, also took questions to reject the BJP’s allegation that they had favoured Mallya getting loans. Mallya has left the country without repaying the huge bank loans taken for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
Replying to media queries, the two top Congress leaders claimed that the letters from the former liquor baron were only among the hundreds of letters routinely received by the then UPA government. Citing several letters written by Mallya to both Manmohan and Chidambaram, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra had earlier in the day had alleged that the two had helped the industrialist get huge loans for bailing out Kingfisher Airlines.
“All prime ministers and other ministers in any government receive representations from various captains of industry which we in normal course, pass on to the appropriate authority. This is what I have done and done with full satisfaction that we were not doing anything which was against the law of the land,” Manmohan told the media here.
“The letter(s) being talked about, is nothing but an ordinary piece of letter which any government in my position would have dealt with. It was a routine transaction,” he said while reacting to Patra’s allegations.
Rebutting Patra’s claims that Manmohan had asked his then principal secretary to “ensure help” to Mallya, Chidambaram said forwarding the letters addressed to the Prime Minister’s Office or other ministries to the officer concerned was a routine affair. “There is absolutely nothing if anybody says we want some forbearance, we want some policy changes.”
“If a letter to PMO is marked down to the Principal Secretary which is then forwarded to the department concerned, it is normal,” said Chidambaram.
“The government, especially the PMO, or the Finance Minister’s office etc., receive hundreds of representations everyday. No minister can deal with these representations personally and they are marked down to the officer concerned who take appropriate follow up action.
“Please ask the present government whether they received representations at all in the last three years. If they say they haven’t received any representation, that will be a serious reflection of the way this government is functioning,” added Chidambaram.