Mumbai, July 23: The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Centre, accusing it of patronising big corporate loan defaulters while enforcing harsh recovery mechanisms on poor and middle-class citizens.

In an editorial in its mouthpiece, ‘Saamana’, the party said as per the official data provided by the Union Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha, public sector banks have written off bad loans totaling Rs 7.75 lakh crore across 1,249 accounts (each owing Rs 100 crore or more) between FY 2014-15 and FY 2025-26. Out of the massive defaults, banks have managed to recover a mere Rs 3.10 lakh crore so far.

While the government argued in Parliament that writing off loans is standard technical accounting for non-recoverable debts and does not equate to a total loan waiver, the editorial termed this defence shocking and hypocritical. “All of this is deeply shocking. Ever since coming to power, the Modi government has continuously beaten its chest about bringing financial discipline to the banking system. So, under what definition of ‘financial discipline’ does it fall to simply transfer unrecovered loans into bad debt accounts instead of enforcing recovery while big industrialists pull off such massive heists on banks?” asked the Thackeray camp.

“Taking massive loans, repaying a tiny fraction, and defaulting on the rest seems to have received official state sanction,” the editorial noted, labelling the current era an “Amrit Kaal of Default”. It further commented, “An ‘Amrit Kaal of Loan Defaulting’ has commenced in the country, where poor ‘cockroaches’ must tighten their belts to pay off their loan instalments, while wealthy billionaires get to bankrupt the banks. If the government itself is complicit, who is going to stop these robbers from looting public money?”

A major point of contention highlighted in the editorial is the government’s refusal to publicly disclose the names of these top corporate defaulters. The government cited Section 45E of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, which mandates confidentiality regarding credit information, as the reason for withholding the identities.

The editorial vehemently questioned this rationale. “Why are the names of small default borrowers publicly advertised in newspapers, while billionaire defaulters are shielded behind confidentiality clauses? Why are properties, vehicles, and homes of middle-class citizens, small business owners, and farmers seized or sealed over tiny defaults, while big corporate tycoons face no such action?”

The Thackeray camp questioned whether these defaulting tycoons are major donors to the ruling party, alleging an unspoken policy of “Give donations, get loan write-offs”.

Sharply contrasting the plight of the common citizen with wealthy industrialists, the editorial claimed that while ordinary taxpayers squeeze their tight budgets to pay off micro-loans, wealthy billionaires are permitted to loot state banks with impunity.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena remarked that the open plunder of public sector banks is taking place through collusion between “fraudsters in industry and big fraudsters in government”. It warned that if the state itself shields such elements, public money remains dangerously unsecured.

London, July 23: A tanker caught fire off the coast of Saudi Arabia after being struck by an unknown projectile, leaving the crew fighting the blaze, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

According to a UKMTO advisory, the attack occurred about 70 nautical miles (130 km) southwest of Al Shuqaiq, Saudi Arabia, in the southern Red Sea.

The UKMTO said there were no reported casualties or environmental impact, and an investigation was underway.

The attack was reported around the same time on Wednesday (local time) as Yemen’s Houthi group said it had carried out a military operation targeting two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.

The group had announced a maritime ban on Saudi-linked vessels two days earlier, citing what it described as Saudi Arabia’s long-running blockade on areas under its control.

The latest attack underscores growing security concerns along the Red Sea shipping route leading to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, raising fears that disruptions already affecting the Strait of Hormuz could spread to another vital maritime chokepoint, reports Xinhua news agency.

Shipping analytics firm Kpler said on Wednesday that vessel traffic through both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait fell sharply on Tuesday as security conditions deteriorated.

The firm also reported several confirmed vessel U-turns near the Gulf of Aden following Houthi threats against Saudi-linked shipping, suggesting that operators were becoming increasingly cautious.

Kpler warned that continued attacks around the two regional maritime chokepoints could reshape shipping routes, raise freight costs and keep geopolitical risk premiums in global energy markets elevated.

Kolkata, July 23: A father and grandfather have been arrested in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district for allegedly killing a two-month-old girl and burying her in a forested area, police said on Thursday.

The incident was reported from the Jagatdal area, where the infant’s body was later exhumed and sent for post-mortem examination at Barrackpore Sub-Divisional Hospital.

According to police, the accused have been identified as Apurba Banerjee, the child’s father, and Vikas Banerjee, her grandfather. Investigators said the family had allegedly been expecting a male child and were unhappy after the birth of a second daughter. They did not even visit the hospital to see the mother and the child.

Police said the infant, who was around two months old, had reportedly been unwell for the past few days. However, on Wednesday, allegations surfaced that the child had been killed and secretly buried in a nearby forest area.

Following a complaint and protests by local residents, police reached the spot and took the two accused to the location where the body had allegedly been buried. Acting on information provided by them, officers exhumed the body and sent it for autopsy. Both men were subsequently arrested and booked under relevant sections of law.

Local residents expressed suspicion over the circumstances surrounding the child’s death. One neighbour told local media that while the family claimed the infant had died naturally, questions were raised over the hurried burial without informing neighbours or authorities.

Neighbour Chandrani Mondal said, “In the morning, we received news that the baby girl was killed and buried in the ground by her father and grandfather. We went to find out about the matter. But they told us that the baby girl died naturally. If that is what happened, why did the family members bury her in the ground so quickly without informing anyone? We want the police to investigate the incident.”

Sampati Banerjee, the mother of the deceased baby girl, said, “My daughter was sick for two or three days. When I woke up this morning, I saw that her body was cold. She was not breathing. I wanted to take my daughter to the hospital. But my husband and father-in-law did not agree. They quickly took the dead girl from my lap and buried her in the forest next to the house.”

Police said the exact cause of death would be determined after the post-mortem report is received, and further investigation is underway.