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The Congress party rapped the Bharatiya Janata party-led government at the Centre for 'promoting' black money and crony capitalism.
Questioning the move to re-introduce Kisan Vikas Patras (KVPs), a scheme that had been withdrawn during its tenure due to its potential to launder unaccounted money, the party also rapped the government for its alleged failure to fulfil an earlier promise of bringing back such money from abroad.
Demanding to know the details of how State Bank of India (SBI) had extended a loan of $1 billion to the Adani Group for development of the Carmichael coal mine in Australia, announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit there, the party said it would be highlighting the "doublespeak and U-turns of the Modi government in the past six months".
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Congress' communication chief Ajay Maken said on Thursday, "The government came to power with various promises, including one about bringing back black money. It is sad that the government is rather promoting black money."
Highlighting the Shyamala Gopinath committee report on small savings schemes and their public policy objectives, he said it had recommended that KVPs be discontinued due to the risks of money laundering and financial terrorism. The Congress-led government had discontinued the scheme thereafter.
Maken demanded to know from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley the logic behind relaunching the KVP. On Wednesday, former finance minister P Chidambaram had demanded likewise.
On the SBI loan to Adani, Maken asked, "What was the propriety of SBI giving the loan to Adani, who was sitting next to the PM during the visit, at a time when some five foreign banks have denied credit to the group for the project?"
He said Modi and the BJP needed to answer queries on living up to their earlier claim of bringing back black money stashed abroad within 100 days of coming to power. The Congress-led government, he said, had issued a position paper on the issue and the names of 800 account holders in foreign banks had come out.
The party will be bringing out a booklet titled 'Two Us make a Zero', on the "consistent pattern of U-turns by the Modi government". On this and other issues, the Congress will be highlighting how the BJP has done an about-turn on the promises it made to voters.
