The Congress chief alleged that Narendra Modi was bailing out the debt-ridden Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) using funds from the State Bank of India (SBI) and Life Insurance Company (LIC).
“Modi Ji, your favourite private company, ILFS is about to sink. You want to save it by using LIC money. Why?,” asked Congress president in a tweet.
Stating that the LIC is a symbol of trust in the country, Gandhi said, “People save every penny to buy an LIC policy. Why do you want to protect the fraudsters with their money? Does ILFS mean ‘I Love Financial Scams’ for you?.”
Earlier in the day, the Congress President, while referring to the same issue, had claimed that the “chowkidaar” had been caught after the scam surfaced in the public domain.
“Lights, Camera, scam. Scene 1:
2007, CM Modi gives IL&FS the GIFT CITY project worth Rs 70,000 crore. Nowadays, there no work. The fraud has surfaced.
Scene 2: 2018, PM Modi is bailing out IL&FS using Rs 91,000 crore in public funds from LIC-SBI. The chokidar is caught,” he had tweeted.
The IL&FS group is facing serious liquidity crisis and has defaulted on interest payment on various debt repayments since August 27. It has over Rs 91,000 crore in debt at the consolidated level.
The company needs an immediate capital infusion of Rs 3,000 crore and is planning a Rs 4,500-crore rights issue.
At a meeting held earlier this month, the key shareholders of the debt-ridden company, including LIC, SBI and HDFC, had kept a pre-condition for IL&FS to raise funds through its assets or non-core businesses, before any additional money could be pumped in.
Earlier in raflescam that shook the nation The Congress has also been demanding answers from the government on why state-run aerospace major HAL was not involved in the deal as finalised during the UPA.
The opposition parties have also alleged that the Reliance Defence was formed just 12 days before the announcement of the Rafale deal by the prime minister on 10 April 2015. The Reliance group has rejected the charges.
