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By:

Vappala Balachandran

19 September 2024 at 11:21:31 am

Where the Krushna Flows

Mohan Deshmukh’s book From the Banks of Krushna River, originally published in Marathi as Krushnakathavarun, reminds me of my stay in Sangli district (1965-1969), which was one of the most memorable periods in my long government service. His book is a delightful account of Sangli’s rich cultural and artistic heritage. It also tells the story of how a village boy from the district - the son of an honest and upright junior police officer - rose to become a leading builder and later president...

Where the Krushna Flows

Mohan Deshmukh’s book From the Banks of Krushna River, originally published in Marathi as Krushnakathavarun, reminds me of my stay in Sangli district (1965-1969), which was one of the most memorable periods in my long government service. His book is a delightful account of Sangli’s rich cultural and artistic heritage. It also tells the story of how a village boy from the district - the son of an honest and upright junior police officer - rose to become a leading builder and later president of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI), where he sought to bring order to Maharashtra’s often chaotic real-estate sector. More remarkably, it recounts how he walked away from a flourishing business in 2013 in search of inner peace through Vipassana. Although I joined the Maharashtra cadre in 1960, my earlier postings gave me little opportunity to immerse myself in Marathi culture and literature. It was only in Sangli that I came to appreciate, in any depth, the district’s rich traditions of poetry and theatre. In that sense, I was fortunate. Soon after I assumed charge as Superintendent of Police, Sangli, the government acquired a tract of land that had once belonged to the legendary Marathi playwright Govind Ballal Deval (1855–1916). It was chosen as the site for a new police headquarters, complete with a vast parade ground and 300 constabulary quarters, the construction of which became one of my principal responsibilities. Deval wrote at least seven Marathi plays, among them the celebrated Samshay Kallol, broadly inspired by Molière's Sganarelle, or The Imaginary Cuckold. By a happy coincidence, I had watched Samshay Kallol during my district training in Solapur in 1960, long before fate brought me to the land once owned by its author. By 1969 I was able to construct a well-equipped police recreation auditorium and get government approval to name it after the late Deval. The naming ceremony was done by the well-known Marathi writer, the late Padma Bhushan Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar, who later won the Jnanpith award in 1974 for his novel ‘Yayati.’ Sangli was aptly known as Natya Pandhari (“the pilgrimage of Marathi theatre.”) It was here that Vishnudas Bhave, the pioneer of the Marathi stage, premiered Sita Swayamvar, the first Marathi play, in 1843. In my time, nearly every major new Marathi play opened in Sangli. Equally memorable was hearing artistes such as Hirabai Barodkar of nearby Miraj and the poet-lyricist G.D. Madgulkar (Ga Di Mā) of Atpadi, whose Geet Ramayan, beautifully rendered by Sudhir Phadke, became a cherished Sunday ritual on All India Radio. Mohan Deshmukh’s mention of Krushna river, the lifeline of Sangli, its basin and confluence with Warana river also reminds me of my experience of the discordance in Sangli district’s political life. He quotes Ga Di Mā’s wistful poem which had narrated Krushna’s beauty together with its hidden contradictions and sorrows: “Sant vahate Krishnamai, tiravarlya sukhadukhanchi, janiv tijhala nahi” (author’s translation: “Calmly flows Mother Krushna, untouched by the joys and sorrows on her shores”). That was my experience too. Sangli introduced me to some of Maharashtra's political giants—Yashwantrao Chavan, Vasant (Dada) Patil and Rajaram Bapu Patil. Despite my being an outsider, they treated a young police officer with warmth and trust. The pleasantries, however, were brief. Soon after taking charge in 1965, I found myself confronting a violent anti-famine agitation led by the Shetkari Kamgari Paksh in Tasgaon. For days, protesters clashed with the police as they tried to march on the taluka office. During one confrontation, a young demonstrator struck me on the head with a lathi, blaming me for the violence. It was an early glimpse of the defiant spirit that the author captures so well. Sangli, he writes, has long been a land of self-respect and resistance, from its defiance of Mughal rule to the freedom struggle, when "Krantisingh" Nana Patil established the Prati Sarkar, alongside revolutionaries such as Kisan Veer and G.D. Bapu Lad. The book traces the author’s childhood in Tasgaon, Budhgaon and neighbouring villages, his struggle for education, and the timely support he received from the Police Welfare Fund. Running through it is his father’s simple creed: remain honest, however poor, and rise only by lawful means. (The writer is a former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat and member of the two-man high level committee appointed by Govt.of Maharashtra to enquire into the systemic errors during 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. His latest book, ‘India and China at Odds in Asian Century,’ was published by Hurst London and by Pentagon Press, New Delhi)

Rahul Gandhi flays Rs 16-lakh-crore banks’ loans write-off

Updated: Jan 29, 2025

Rahul Gandhi

Mumbai: Congress’ Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government for the staggering Rs. 16-lakh-crore write-off by various national, private and urban cooperative banks, on Monday.


Speaking at a ‘Save Constitution Rally’ held in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of waiving off the massive amounts borrowed by big industrialists, “but did not write off the debts of poor farmers, labourers and students”.


The reference was to a report in ‘The Perfect Voice’ (“Banks recover crumbs from bad loans” - JAN. 23) highlighting RTI revelations on how Indian banks had written off over Rs. 16.61 lakh-crore of non-performing assets, while the recovery process was a measly 1.6 percent per annum of this amount.


“You work and toil, you pay the GST, but Chinese goods are sold in India courtesy big corporates here. The youth in China get jobs. Adani-Ambani get the profits while your children are deprived of employment opportunities,” thundered Rahul Gandhi.


He contended that “the peoples’ money is siphoned off from their pockets and lands into the coffers of Adani-Ambani”, raising questions ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament starting this week.


A RTI query by Pune-based businessman Prafful Sarda elicited shocking details of the loans written off by different banks, amounting to a whopping total Rs. 16,61,290-crore (NPAs) from various defaulters for 10 years.

These include around: Rs 12,08,621 crore (Public Sector Banks - PSBs); Rs 4,46,649 crore (Private banks); and Rs 6,020 crore (Urban Cooperative Banks - UCBs).


This was for a period of almost 10 years, from 2014-2015 till Sep. 2024, as per the RTI response to Sarda from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s CPIO Nengneikim Guite.


Accordingly, the actual recovery notched for the last nearly 10 years was crumbs - just Rs 2,68,795 crore – comprising, Rs 2,16,547 crore (of PSBs); Rs 52,248 crore (of Private); though the figures of UCBs is not provided - leaving a huge pile of Rs. 13,92,495 crore, pending recovery.


“From the NPAs written-off (Rs. 16,61,290 crore), the recoveries amounted to an annual average of Rs 21,654 crore (PSBs); and Rs 522 crore (Private), working out to barely 16.17 percent for the last around 10 years. This gives an approximate annual average of a measly 1.6 percent recovery,” Sarda pointed out.


Quoting the RBI’s RTI reply, he added that a major chunk of the write-offs is due to ‘technical/prudential/Advances Under Collection’, but “the banks retain the right to recover from the borrowers in all such cases”.


“The government’s contention is that such write-offs are ‘purely balance sheet management’ strategy. Hence, the borrower’s liability to ‘repay’, or the bank’s right to ‘recover’ is not diminished in any manner. There are specialized teams which follow-up for the recovery processes thereafter,” said Sarda.


As per a 30-year-old policy of the government, all credit-related matters are deregulated with the concerned Banks and their respective Board of Directors, who decide about the loan amount and recovery policy.


“In this scenario, will the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announce stricter norms to pin the accountability on the lenders, right from the managers to the Board of Directors - and in case of NPAs - recover the lost amounts from the banks’ own executives for their lapses and poor judgement,” demanded Sarda.


Sarda and banking activists urge the new RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra to suggest measures under the banking laws to make the top directors, officials and/or external forces who pressurize the banks responsible, liable and punishable within a reasonable time-frame.


They aver that this could help prevent defaulters like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya plus many more who brazenly dupe banks of public money and sneak out of India with political patronage to enjoy their ill-gotten wealth, in future.

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