New Delhi, May 6 (PTI) The Congress on Tuesday claimed the government suddenly terminated KV Subramanian's position as India's executive director at the IMF due to "impropriety", and raised questions of "wastage of public money" over the Union Bank of India allegedly placing an order for two lakh copies of his book.

The opposition party also alleged the cost of this "blatant propaganda" was borne by the public exchequer and being done because Subramanian justified every economic blunder and flawed policy of the government.

There was no immediate reaction from the government, Subramanian or the Union Bank of India on the allegations.

Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the Modi government suddenly terminated Subramanian's position as India's executive director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) two days ago with only six months left in his tenure.

"The government has so far given no reason for this abrupt and rare sacking. He is the same KV Subramanian who was the chief economic advisor and who had during Covid, when the economy had shrunk by over 24 per cent, predicted a V-shaped recovery … One that never happened," she said.

Citing internal documents of the public sector Union Bank of India, she claimed they brought to light the bank placed an order for two lakh copies of Subramanian's book "India@100" at a cost of Rs 7.25 crore. Of this, Rs 3.5 crore was paid in advance.

"These books were meant to be distributed through zonal and regional offices of the Union Bank of India to its deposits to schools, colleges and libraries. Each of the bank's 18 zonal offices were meant to receive 10,525 copies. After making the advance payment, the regional offices were asked to incur the rest of the cost under their miscellaneous expenditure," Shrinate said.

"But it now seems that hard evidence has left the government embarrassed and forced his premature removal from the post of India's executive director at the IMF, six months before the completion of his three-year term," the Congress leader claimed.

This episode raises several key questions of "wastage of public money" and "gross impropriety", she said.

Posing questions to the government, Shrinate asked if it was true that Union Bank of India obtained prior approval from its board of directors or the Department of Financial Services for spending crores or rupees on the bulk purchase of books authored by Subramanian.

"What is the intended purpose of distributing these books, and how does this expenditure align with the bank's obligations to prudently utilise public funds? Has Modi government's finance ministry evaluated whether this expenditure adheres to the fiduciary responsibilities of a public sector bank towards its depositors and taxpayers?" she said.

She also asked if the Union finance Ministry investigated whether the transaction constituted a conflict of interest or not, given Subramanian's previous role as chief economic advisor and his proximity to key government figures.

It is also alleged that the MD and CEO of Union Bank of India, Manimekhalai, who is due for an extension in June, facilitated the royalty payments from this purchase as an "indirect bribe" to lobby for her extension, securing approval through none less than Prime Minister Modi, Shrinate said.

"How does the ministry address these allegations and ensure that no undue influence or misuse of public funds occurred?" she asked.

She further asked if Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman would come clean on this transaction.

Shrinate also raised the issue of Pakistan asking for a loan of USD 1.3 billion from the IMF.

"Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh was the first to raise this issue on April 29 and urged the Indian government to strongly oppose this. After this, there are reports that India asked the IMF to review Pakistan's loan and funding," Shrinate said.

"We hope India's demand will be accepted and Pakistan, which harbours terrorists and indulges in anti-India activities, will be denied this loan," she said. PTI ASK ASK SZM SZM