Big industrialists and corporate honchos who had failed to repay loans worth thousands of crores were ‘‘looters, thieves, and traitors’’ and should be dealt with under the provisions of POTA, Shiv Sena MP, Suresh Jadhav, declared in the Lok Sabha today. He was participating in the discussion on the Finance Bill which saw MPs rising above partisan politics to speak with knowledge and passion on the impact of this year’s budget on vulnerable sections of the populace.Elaborating on his demand, Jadhav said a poor farmer had trouble getting a small loan of Rs 1,000 but non-performing assets (NPAs) owed by big industrialists stood at Rs 1.10 lakh crore. These defaulters were ‘‘traitors’’, he said, demanding that the Finance minister should at least disclose the full list of the NPA defaulters ‘‘so that we know who these people are.’’ No ads means Cong brownie pts for FM NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Jaswant Singh came in for some unexpected praise in the Lok Sabha on Monday from Congress MPs, even as his brief absence from the House during the discussion on the Finance Bill led to a mild flutter in the afternoon. In his long speech on the Finance Bill, Congress MP P.K. Bansal said Union ministers were spending unprecedented amounts on issuing advertisements even if they had completed only 100 days in office. Interrupting him from the chair, Margaret Alva said: ‘‘Except the FM.’’ Bansal at once agreed that Jaswant Singh had never issued ads with his face plastered all over the newspapers, a compliment that Singh accepted with half a smile. (ENS) Other MPs who participated in the discussion also raised the issue of NPAs. Arun Kumar (Samata) highlighted the gross discrimination between the way poor and rich defaulters were treated.MPs also focussed on the plight of weavers, farmers, and small scale readymade garment manufacturers as a result of provisions in the Budget. Balkrishna Chauhan (BSP), for instance, said the exemption of excise duty for hand-processed fabrics ‘‘only if no power or steam is used in any process’’ failed to take into account the reality faced by thousands of weavers in 25 districts of eastern UP, in Salem district of Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in the country. Because of the excise duty imposed, thousands of weavers across UP were on the street, he said, and urged the Finance Minister to withdraw the duty.This demand was echoed by many of the speakers who gave detailed accounts on how the indiscriminate imposition of excise duty was affecting the existence of large sections of rural artisans.All the MPs who spoke refrained from scoring political points and concentrated on the economy. Akhilesh Singh (SP) spoke on the Government’s neglect of farmers, P.K. Bansal (Cong) on the threat posed by MNCs to the small scale sector, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (RJD) complained that Bihar was neglected and V. Radhakrishnan (CPI-M) on traditional industries dying in Kerala.
