Union Minister Smriti Irani accused UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi of leading a government that “attacked the core of banking system”

Rajan tells Parliament panel that a large number of NPAs arose in 2006-08, BJP says ‘We told you so’.Giving fresh ammo to the BJP to target the Congress over bad loans, former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that a large number of non-performing assets (NPAs) originated in 2006-2008 when India's economic growth was strong as the banks made mistakes. He also said that global slowdown, project cost overruns and government decision-making were among the factors that contributed to the process.The Congress-led UPA was in power and former finance minister P Chidambaram was heading the North Block office during the period mentioned by Rajan. The remarks, mentioned in a note to Parliament's Estimates Committee on NPAs of public sector banks, come at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly claimed that the NPAs were the Congress government's "legacy"."A larger number of bad loans originated in 2006-2008 when economic growth was strong, and previous infrastructure projects such as power plants had been completed on time and within budget. It is at such times that banks make mistakes. They extrapolate past growth and performance to the future," he said in the note ."A variety of governance problems such as the suspect allocation of coal mines coupled with the fear of investigation slowed down government decision making in Delhi, both in the UPA and the subsequent NDA governments," Rajan added.The former governor also claimed that a list of high-profile cases related to banking frauds was sent to the Prime Minister's Office for a coordinated action.Ironically, the BJP never had an easy equation with Rajan and had even attacked him in the wake of the PNB scam. Rajan was "held equally guilty" of implementing as RBI governor the 80:20 gold scheme, a "pet project" of Chidambaram launched just before May 2014 elections. The BJP has alleged that the scheme was meant to benefit a handful of gold traders such as Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani , who was deployed to attack the Congress, called Rajan's note a "loud proclamation" of corruption done by the Congress. "UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi led a government that attacked the very core of the Indian banking system," she said.The minister also attacked Congress president Rahul Gandhi for challenging the IT department's decision to reopen his 2011-12 tax assessments. She said he was quick to hug the PM but would run a mile from an income tax officer. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, a member of the Estimates Committee, said, "It is a vindication of our stand on UPA-era scams"