Moily seeks apology from Kateel

M Veerappa Moily, former Union Minister and chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, on Wednesday sought an apology from Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel for dragging his name into the controversy surrounding the merger of Vijaya Bank with other banks.

Moily, in a letter to Kateel, clarified that as the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, he had not recommended the merger of Vijaya bank with other banks.

“Your statements to the media that I had recommended the merger of Vijaya Bank is far from truth. By making such statements without checking their veracity, is unbecoming of your position as a Member of Parliament,” Veerappa Moily said, in his letter to Kateel, a copy of which, was made available to the media.

‘Cheap politics’

District In-charge Minister U T Khader, earlier on Wednesday, accused MP Nalin Kumar Kateel of indulging cheap politics by blaming former Union Minister M Veerappa Moily for the merger of Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda.

Khader refuted Kateel’s allegations and said there was no truth in them, during a press conference at Circuit House.

“Although Moily is chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, the proposal to merge Vijaya Bank with other banks was not brought to his notice. There is no such process of banks being merged with the approval of the finance committee, as claimed by Kateel,” he asserted.

Speaking further, Khader said, “I contacted Moily in this regard. He said he had not received any proposal from the Finance Committee to merge banks and was ignorant about the matter. Moily also informed that he would write to Nalin Kumar Kateel for having mislead the public on the issue.”

'No threat to govt'

Khader has said that there is no threat to the coalition government and that the BJP will not succeed in its efforts to topple the government.

Responding to a query on such attempts by the BJP, Khader asked, “The BJP has failed to get the support of three corporators in order to secure power in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Will it succeed in securing the support of over 10 MLAs in order to form the government?”