TMC MP Saket Gokhale claims Modi govt borrowed ₹8 lakh crores from foreign banks in 7 years, hides crucial details from reply to his own question: Here are the facts

Money laundering scam accused Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saket Gokhale, notorious for peddling fake news, has come up with yet another piece of half-truths and disinformation to attack the Modi government over foreign borrowing.

On 17^th September 2025, the TMC MP published a long post on X, and claimed that in the last seven years, the Modi government has “heavily” borrowed money from international banks to fund various projects. Saket Gokhale claimed that the Central government took Rs 91 billion from foreign banks as loans in the 7-8 years. Gokhale relied on a response by Minister of Finance’s Department of Economic Affairs to his question asked in the Rajya Sabha in December 2023.

“Modi Govt’s shocking foreign borrowing Over the last 7 years, the Modi Govt has HEAVILY borrowed money from international banks to fund projects that Modi announces during elections. The amount? India has borrowed $91 BILLION (₹8,035,300 CRORES) from foreign banks in JUST 7 years. Foreign debt of ₹8 LAKH CRORE in 8 years means an average of ₹1.2 LAKH CRORE PER YEAR. On this amount, India pays an annual interest of ₹45,000 crore. That’s ONLY the interest. The repayment of the actual loan principal is separate,” the TMC MP posted.

In his attempt to give the readers an idea of the magnitude the loan taken and interests to be paid on it, Gokhale said, “Just the annual interest of ₹45,000 crore paid on this foreign debt (2018 onwards) is equal to India’s ENTIRE annual budget on higher education. Today, for Modi’s birthday, the govt will announce mega projects as “gifts” to the people. Every time there’s a state election, Modi makes regular campaign visits and announces projects worth lakhs of crores. For the last 11 years, the Modi Govt has bled people through taxes. If that wasn’t enough, Modi Govt has been HEAVILY borrowing money from foreign institutions. Who will shoulder the burden of this HUGE foreign debt? Yup – it’s you.”

The controversial TMC leader insinuated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is taking loans from foreign banks to announce projects ahead of elections and forgets his promises post elections while the Indian people pay the price.

“…Modi will keep announcing jumlas before every election. He will promise lakhs of crores as “gifts to the people” as if he’s spending money from his pocket. The sad truth, however, is that the people of India are paying heavily for Modi’s election promises. The sadder part? Once the election is over, Modi’s promises are forgotten. India is borrowing billions of dollars just for funding Modi’s false election promises. And the people of India will be repaying this foreign debt for decades to come.” Gokhale added.

The Trinamool Congress MP attached cropped portions of the Ministry of Finance’s reply to his query in the Rajya Sabha. However, either Gokhale deliberately withheld the complete truth laid bare in the Modi government’s response to his question or the TMC MP has divorced common sense.

Has Modi government taken Rs 8 lakh crore foreign debt?

Back in 2023, Gokhale had asked three questions: (a) the number of loan pacts signed by Government with foreign multilateral financial institutions and foreign banks since January 2018 till date for infrastructure projects along with details of each; (b) the total amount of these loans availed by Government from foreign multilateral financial institutions and foreign banks since January 2018 till date along with the rate of interest on each loan; and (c) the current total outstanding amount from these loans that is yet to be repaid to foreign multilateral financial institutions and foreign banks by Government?

In response to this, the Central government elaborated the empirical details of loan pacts signed by Government with foreign multilateral financial institutions and foreign banks since January 2018 till date along with total amount of these loans availed by Government and the rate of interest on each loan.

While the second image attached to Gokhale’s post which states details of the loan currency, outstanding LC, outstanding INR and outsanding USD, has its numbers correct, the TMC MP passed off the data as loans taken solely by the Central government.

However, these loans were not taken only by the Central government but also by various state governments, including West Bengal’s TMC government. As per the said answer to Gokhale’s unstarred question asked in the Rajya Sabha in 2023, the Central Government has taken $15.23 billion, Maharashtra government $2.90 billion, Tamil Nadu government $1.80 billion, Rajasthan government $1.36 billion, Madhya Pradesh government $1.10 billion, Andhra Pradesh: $1.09 billion, Chhattisgarh: $0.46 billion, Uttar Pradesh: $0.42 billion, Karnataka: $0.40 billion, West Bengal: $0.38 billion, Assam: $0.36 billion, Himachal Pradesh: $0.35 billion, Bihar:$0.31 billion, Kerala: $0.22 billion, Punjab: $0.24 billion, Tripura: $0.28 billion, Odisha: $0.22 billion, and Uttarakhand government has taken $0.23 billion from external sources.

Scammer Saket Gokhale has come with another piece of shit.! He has old habbit of mixing RTIs and taking millions of fund by fooling people.

Here also he has cropped his Rajyasabha question and reply as per his need.

As per govt's reply (PDF attached in thread), These loans are… https://t.co/0r0CxwiaXc

— Facts (@BefittingFacts) September 18, 2025

Interestingly, in his desperation to attack the Modi government, Gokhale quickly presented cherrypicked data without complete information and proper context. However, skipped to look at the deplorable condition of the state ruled by his own party.

The outstanding liabilities of West Bengal to Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is 38 percent as of March 2024. This is one of the highest debts to GSDP ratio in large states. In February this year, it was reported that the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal will close the fiscal year 2025-26 with an accumulated debt pegged at around Rs 7.72 lakh crore. This is 9.21 per cent higher than the figure of Rs 6,30,783.50 as on 31^st March 2025, and as per the revised estimates for 2024-25.

Back in 2022, the TMC government diverted mid-day meal funds to pay compensation to the victims of Botui violence. The Central government’s report revealed that over 16 crore midday meals worth “more than Rs 100 crore” being “over-reported” by the West Bengal administration between April and September 2022. From SSC scam, PDS scam to cattle smuggling scam among others, West Bengal’s economy is going through a crisis and yet, its MP has the audacity to peddle disinformation to malign the Central government.

The wild conspiracy theories and fake claims of Saket Gokhale

Amidst the anti-CAA protests in January 2020, Gokhale had claimed that the Delhi Police permitted him to hold a rally and chant “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko.” The RTI activist did not exhibit any proof or approval letter from the Delhi police that could substantiate his claims.

He later made amends to his insidious claims and alleged that the police requested him to re-schedule his protest after February 8 that year in light of the Model Code of Conduct.

Without verifying the details of the case, left-wing propaganda site The Wire, and Congress mouthpiece National Herald published his claims to suggest that Delhi police found nothing objectionable with the slogans.

Forced by circumstances, the Delhi police took to Twitter to expose the lie being peddled by Gokhale.

While dubbing the claims as baseless and false, the DCP New Delhi said, “It is hereby clarified that no permission to hold a protest on 02.02.2020 has been given to Sh. Saket Gokhale. A copy of his request letter is being circulated in social media as permission, which is not the case.”

In June 2020, Saket Gokhale peddled wild conspiracy theories about a ‘ventilator scam’ after the first batch of ventilators procured using the PM CARES fund was made available to hospitals.

In a seven-part thread, Gokhale alleged that ₹750+ crore had gone ‘missing’ from the funds allotted for procuring ventilators under the PM CARES fund.

Soon, other Congress minions spread the same as gospel truth and claimed that there was a ‘ventilator scam’ underway.

All the fake claims were then debunked by the CMD of BEL (Bharat Electronic Limited), a professional Defence electronics company in India. In February 2021, BEL filed a ₹1 crore defamation suit against the RTI activist for spreading lies.

On August 14, 2020, the Wall Street Journal published a report alleging that a senior executive of the social media giant Facebook was allegedly favouring the ruling BJP government. Soon after, Ankhi Das, the public policy director of Facebook, came under attack by the Congress party and its trolls.

Saket Gokhale was one of those who insinuated that Ankhi Das had links with RSS-affiliated groups. He claimed that Ankhi Das had “attended sessions” of the World Organization of Students & Youth (WOSY), a youth group, which is led by her sister, Rashmi Das.

The TMC spokesman also said that WOSY’s office was located in the same building as an RSS outfit in Delhi.

In a hurry to target Ankhi Das, Gokhale went on to post an image of the WOSY event to claim that the public policy Director of Facebook was attending the event. However, the image was that of Ankhi Das’ twin sister Dr Rashmi Das.

In a statement, WOSY had threatened legal action against Gokhale for peddling misinformation. It added that Dr Rashmi Das’ association with WOSY was purely voluntary and aimed to spread the concept of ‘Vasudeva Kuttambakam’ among international students living in India.

In April 2021, he was caught peddling lies to defend the Maharashtra government’s harassment of Bruck Pharma director over Remdesivir supply. He later complained with Maharashtra Home Minister about how Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis or the BJP, as private players, could obtain a crucial drug when its sale is allowed only to the state government.

In September 2024, Gokhale claimed that the cost of construction of these trains has been increased to 50%. He alleged a ‘quid pro quo corruption’ on the part of the Modi government. He claimed that the number of trains has been decreased to 133 in the new contract and that the cost of making one train has increased to ₹436 crores from ₹290 crores. However, the lies of Saket Gokhale were soon debunked by the Ministry of Railways, which highlighted a missing fact in his propaganda-laden tweet.