DNA Edit: Doors are closing

The noose is tightening around the necks of wilful defaulters who have had a field day till a month ago. With the exit routes blocked – flying off to exotic locations with ill-gotten wealth is now impossible – some 91 people will now have to bear the consequences of their actions. As state-owned banks pull up their socks, obtaining passport information of borrowers whose loans have breached the 50-crore mark, the Centre’s initiatives to put an end to banking scams are taking a definitive shape. It’s one thing to mollycoddle industrialists to invest in India, and quite another to enable them to exploit the system for personal gains.

The likes of Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya had abused the trust of the public. They had also tarnished the Modi government’s image as it was caught napping. These extraordinary steps will instil fear in the minds of scamsters while restoring people’s faith in the government. In a short time, the government has identified 400 companies, which have shied away from paying back to the banks. This shows how deep and widespread the rot has been.

The Opposition can cry itself hoarse in Parliament over the PNB scam, but disruptive policies are not known to yield to anything positive. It should be kept in mind that Nirav and Mallya and several others have been part of the system that was very much alive and kicking when the UPA dispensation was in power. These are legacy issues, which have festered for far too long. The other important piece of legislation is the Fugitive Economic Offenders bill for its “effective, expeditious and constitutionally permissible deterrent to ensure that such actions are curbed”. These will pave the way for a rapid and a thorough clean-up of the banking system. When the law takes its own course, without any interference from the ruling elite, it is bound to produce sterling results.