Former finance minister P Chidambaram on Monday put the onus on the banks to recover Rs 9,000 crore defaulted by the Kingfisher Airlines of Vijay Mallya, saying banks had given loans and it is their responsibility to get the money back.
Chidambaram said the banks should take appropriate action to recover the loans. “I don’t know the facts of Mallya’s case. It’s for the banks which had given money to take appropriate action,” he said while launching his book Standing Guard — A Year in Opposition, a collection of his 51 columns in The Indian Express and The Sunday Express (published by Rupa and part of the Express Book Series).
“In 2002-03, The Indian Express carried a series on ‘The Great Bank Robbery’. Who was the Prime Minister at that time?” he said referring to the NDA government headed by Prime Minister AB Vajpayee. The Indian Express ran a series of articles on the systematic loot of the banking system with possible connivance of bank officials estimated at Rs 1.1 lakh crore in the early 2000.
Chidambaram said GK Pillai, the then Union home secretary, had seen the papers pertaining to Ishrat Jahan encounter case at least thrice and questioned why only those papers which can call Pillai’s bluff have gone missing now. “The file passed the home secretary’s table at least three times,” he said.
Chidambaram said he did only minor editorial changes to improve the quality of the language as is any lawyer’s wont in the second affidavit.
“Once when the draft came back from the AG (Attorney General), when he put it up to me and when I sent it back. At least three times, the file went to him (Pillai). And now they say those papers are missing. To whose advantage is the vetted draft missing? I want the draft vetted by the AG.”
“If the draft vetted by the AG is produced, it will prove that the AG, the top law officer of the country, has looked into the draft. I’ve nothing to hide and I hope the mystery has been unravelled now,” said Chidambaram. Pillai had earlier alleged that the second affidavit in the Ishrat encounter case was filed under the instructions from Chidambaram.
Meanwhile, Chidambaram came down heavily on Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of BJP, saying that the student body is the agent provocateur in the universities
“ABVP is the single most powerful agent provocateur today in the universities. It complains about professors, it complains about students, they want boys to be rusticated, they want teachers to be terminated. There was a letter today, ABVP wanted a couple of JNU professors to be investigated. When did a student body get this kind of authority?” Chidambaram asked. “University is not a monastery. If ABVP has it way, universities will become monasteries,” he said.
“We have always been an intolerant society. Sections of the people have been excluded … in wearing clothes and entering temples. But what’s worrying now? Intolerance is being justified. Intolerance is being justified by hate mongers,” Chidambaram said.
“Humour is being replaced by hate. Diatribe has replaced dialogue. Which is why there is so much acrimony and hostility in public space. We were not like this immediately after independence. We have reached a situation where I borrow US President George Bush’s doctrine: “Are you with me or against me?” Chidambaram said.
On the style of functioning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chidambaram said, “Prime Minister is very articulate. But his communication is one way, and usually from a stage. That works only up to a point. He must find a way to communicate both ways … holding press conferences frequently. Most intelligent communicators do it all the time. Obama does it thrice week. David Cameron does it every Wednesday.”
“This is also the fault of the previous Prime Minister,” Chidamabaram said on Manmohan Singh during the UPA government days. “We had a Prime Minister who doesn’t speak at all and one who speaks too much … but to an audience,” said Anil Dharkar, founder and director of Literature Live who moderated a discussion after the launch.
The former finance minister added that the GST Bill is being held up on three grounds and also sought a debate on these issues.
