Letter to BS: Modi government should revisit the lending policy of banks

The arrest of Rotomac Pens owner Vikram Kothari well before he planned to flee the country is some consolation. The report has it that a consortium of seven banks had extended multi-million credits to the Kanpur-based firm and its related companies 2008 onwards. For loan-defaulters and scamsters, the period between May 2004 and May 2014 was a golden era. But the sufferers are common people with additional dose of taxes imposed on them to resurrect the sagging economy. It is rather intriguing that more and more scams pertaining to the period of an economist Prime Minister have started tumbling out. Now, the Narendra Modi government should revisit the lending policy of banks. Power at the states or the centre is not one party’s property. But in a democratic set up, old governments go and new governments come. Only the face of the government changes. It has been proved beyond doubt in the past that good performance alone is not the deciding factor to install a popular government. The classic example for this is the Vajpayee government. Some experts have viewed that it is not unusual if the politicians cheat the people. But the case of people cheating politicians will be under rarest of the rare cases. The best example of that was the fact that the Vajpayee government was voted out in 2004 despite impressive performance. Power comes and power goes. But a prime minister must be remembered for the good decisions taken.

K V Seetharamiah  

Hassan