(With inputs from PTI)

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday slammed Rahul Gandhi 's "stealing from RBI " attack at the government and said the people of the country had given the Congress leader and his party a befitting reply for his "chor" jibes in the last Lok Sabha elections."Congress should have spoken to its own finance ministers before making allegations of 'stealing RBI capital'", Sitharaman said at a press conference."They have become consummate in making allegations of stealing and I do not want to pay much heed to their statements," she added.The finance minister was reacting to questions on RBI's move to transfer Rs 1.76 lakh crore of surplus to the government.Rahul Gandhi accused the government of "stealing money" from the RBI and said the Prime Minister and the finance minister are "clueless" about solving the "self created economic disaster."He said the move was like stealing a Band-Aid from the dispensary and sticking it on a gunshot wound.The Congress termed the RBI move "catastrophic" and accused the government of thrusting India's economy towards bankruptcy and an economic emergency.Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma demanded that the government bring out a white paper on the state of Indian economy within a week and release data on projects underway and investments in public and private sectors together with the actual factory output.Sitharaman also slammed the opposition for questioning the credibility of the RBI, which had constituted the Bimal Jalan committee on determining the excess capital, and said this was a "worrying" sign.The committee had eminent people on it and making any allegations like this is "outlandish", Sitharaman said."Any suggestion on the credibility of RBI seems a bit outlandish considering the committee was appointed by the RBI itself," she said, adding the government has not decided how to use the windfall from the RBI.The opposition party's charges had come a day after the RBI board decided to transfer a record Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the government, which included Rs 52,000 crore of excess capital identified by the Jalan panel.On the former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan's comments in December 2018 on the likelihood of the RBI's rating getting downgraded if its excess capital is carved out, Sitharaman said the Jalan panel was appointed by the RBI itself, with eminent experts and met several times before arriving at its conclusion.It can be noted the RBI's excess reserves had become a thorny issue between the RBI and the government last year.Former governor Urjit Patel and his deputy Viral Acharya, who quit separately before their terms ended, were opposed to part with the reserves and had also found support from Rajan.Former chief economic advisory Arvind Subramanian, who had first pointed to the excess reserve and had also called for paring it down, had opined that the money should be used only for specific purposes like bank recapitalisation. Sitharaman Tuesday said the government is yet to decide on what to do with the money.Within weeks of taking over, present governor Shaktikanta Das, who had retired as the finance secretary, appointed the Jalan panel in consultation with the government in December 2018.