Congress chief intensifies attack on PM Modi

New Delhi: After the Rafale attack, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday intensified his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and claimed that public money was being used to bail-out the debt-ridden IL&FS group.

The Congress preside-nt launched his attack in a tweet, titled, “Lights, Camera, Scam” Mr. Gandhi alleged that in 2007 when Mr Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat, the IL&FS was given the “Gift City” project worth `70,000 crore and till date no work has been done under the plan.

Mr Gandhi has alleged that Mr Modi is rescuing the group via public savings in Life Insurance Corporation and the State Bank of India.

Mr Gandhi tweeted, “Modiji, your favourite private company ILFS is about to drown.You want to save the company via LIC. Why? LIC is the sign of trust of the country. Why do you save the traffickers with public money? Does ILFS mean ‘I Love Financial Scams’ to you?”

A few days back, the Congress had raised the issue and warned of “an impending ‘Lehman Brothers-type’ economic crisis facing the country”. The IL&FS crisis has also dented equity investors confidence in the entire NBFC space.

Congress has called for a forensic audit of the group over the disbursement of Rs 42,000 crore in the last four years. Congress spokesman Mr. Manish Tiwari also tweeted that nobody knows where the Rs. 42,000 crore disappeared. The call for an audit comes at a time, when concerns have been raised regarding the financial stability of the group after some of its subsidiaries defaulted on commercial paper repayment obligations.