The PNB scam has not only embarrassed the Narendra Modi government and its stance against corruption in the country but also, underlined the lackluster effort of the Finance Ministry.
No doubt, ever since demonetization, the finance ministry of India under Arun Jaitley has scored more own goals than encouraging steps. In the Rs 11,300 crore PNB fraud, Nirav Modi along with his wife, brother, and business partner Mehul Choksi has been booked by the CBI. All of them are absconding and the central government is facing mini-crisis in this particular case of willful loan defaulter.
Incidentally, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has come up with a very different explanation of this huge scam. He has categorically criticized the auditors and Supervisory Agencies and has urged them to introspect so that they can avoid cases of financial wrongdoing in near future.
Quite uncharacteristically he remarked, “Also what were auditors doing? If both internal and external auditors have looked the other way and failed to detect, then I think CA professionals must introspect. Supervisory agencies also must introspect what are the additional mechanisms they have to put in place.”
This particular stance of Arun Jaitley, pinpointing the auditors and other supervisory agencies haven’t gone down well among various quarters. The central government is under the scanner and its policies for willful loan defaulters.
Side by side, there are objections to bank policies and prerogatives whether VVIP loan defaulters get special treatment or not. Many people are of the opinion that common citizens, the taxpayers are mostly harassed in getting grants for loans whereas these billionaires get such big money loans from banks without much fuss.
Apart from that, there is a general notion that top-level management of PNB is also responsible for scams of such magnitude. Many people still consider demonetization too be a bad experiment from Arun Jaitley in the name of diminishing black money from Indian economy and now this particular criticism is considered to be just an eyewash or distraction to avoid public scrutiny.
