Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday (August 27, 2026) accused the Narendra Modi government of creating “two systems” in the country, one for a handful of billionaires and another for everyone else, after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved a resolution plan allowing businessman Subhash Chandra to settle ₹22,006 crore dues for ₹6.5 crore.
In a post on X, Mr. Gandhi quipped that NCLT stood for “Neta-Company Loot Tribunal”. He said, “If a farmer doesn’t pay 50 thousand, his land gets auctioned off. If a salaried person misses even one EMI, bank goons show up at the house. Poor students can’t even get loans for education.”
“But for select ‘friends,’ bank money is like personal property — withdraw as much as you want, repay whatever you feel like,” Mr. Gandhi said, adding, “The Modi government has created two systems in the country — one for a handful of billionaires, and another for everyone else.”
The NCLT has approved a repayment plan under which Mr. Chandra can pay ₹6.5 crore against admitted creditor claims of ₹22,006.57 crore in his personal insolvency resolution process. This amounts to a haircut of nearly 99.97% for lenders.
Other Cong. leaders react
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh described the settlement as “not just a haircut” but a “mundan”, saying it made “a completely mockery of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016”.
“In finance terminology, when creditors are owed money and the debtor repays only part of it, the difference expressed as a percentage is called a haircut,” Mr. Ramesh explained in a post on X.
Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that such settlements amounted to “loan waiver of industrialists in garb of haircuts”.
“How can you have haircuts of 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% 90%, now 99%? Then why are you having NCLT proceedings?” he asked.
Mr. Surjewala demanded that the Finance Minister disclose how much banks had lost through haircuts under NCLT proceedings over the past 12 years. He claimed the figure could be “upwards of ₹10 lakh crore”, while stressing that he had “some information” to support the assertion.
Published – August 27, 2026 12:44 pm IST
