February 22, 2025

People are talking about how easy it is for economic offenders to flee the country. People are saying that this is possible only because they are tipped-off about the impending move against them. They recognize that this is possible only because someone somewhere sells his soul for a few lakh of rupees and provides the information to the culprits. People assert that this is not done by the political friends of the culprits but by some officers in the banks which these offenders loot.

People say that this situation is largely a result of the rampant corruption prevalent in the lower echelons of the bureaucracy and the officialdom. They opine that scams such as the one in the Punjab National Bank are a result of collision between unscrupulous businessmen and greedy bank officers and will continue to happen regardless of who is in power at the Centre.

People also point out that despite Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksey’s perceived closeness to the current regime in power, the scam started when the UPA was at the helm. People are amazed as to how, despite several checks in place, banks allow this to happen. They are also questioning the role of RBI in regulating the banking sector. The role of chartered accountants in passing accounts of banks quarter after quarter without reconciling major accounts is also being questioned by the people.

People seem convinced that the gravy train in these scams is well spread out and people say that they are not sure whether there are political payoffs in the whole scenario. People say that these scams are being carried out only by bank officers and businessmen without the knowledge of the political class. That is why people are concerned about the corruption in banking sector that makes this possible. People say that the time has come to develop new accounting standards for the sector that makes it mandatory for reconciliation of LoC’s, LC’s and LoU’s regardless of date of issue and expiry.