Rahul Gandhi vs Nirmala Sitharaman round 2, this time over IDBI Bank stake sale

Rahul Gandhi and Nirmala Sitharaman trade barbs over IDBI Bank stake sale, as Congress leader backs employees’ strike

NEW DELHI: Congress’s Rahul Gandhi and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman sparred on social media over govt’s decision to sell its stake in IDBI Bank with the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha backing protesting employees.A day after he wrote to “members of the IDBI bank family”, Rahul accused govt of selling banks in contrast to banks being established during Congress’s tenure.“During Congress’ time, IDBI was established – to build the nation’s industry. During Modi’s time, first the bidding was seen, then the price was set,” he posted on X. He also questioned the need to sell stake in the bank, which registered a profit of Rs 9,000 crore last year.Responding to him, Sitharaman accused Congress of using banks and financial institutions as “personal entities” and pressurising employees to “extend loans at their whim, bypassing prudent lending norms”.She said Modi govt inherited IDBI Bank, which was in poor shape, as Congress politicians forced it to lend money to business houses, such as Videocon, Winsome Diamond, ABG Shipyard and Kingfisher, with which they had close ties. “These turned into bad loans, causing huge losses for IDBI Bank, which we recognised.”She said with a recapitalisation of Rs 25,000 crore, Modi govt brought it back to health. “IDBI Bank is now poised for its next phase of growth,” FM said, while asserting that due process has been followed in the “strategic restructuring” of IDBI, rebutting reports of govt not following rules while finalising the transaction, which will generate over Rs 52,000 crore for Centre and LIC.“Congress-era banking had a phonebook for the powerful and a rulebook for common citizens. The era of ‘connection and setting banking’ is over. Common people now have easy access to loans, and employees are not under pressure to extend loans on the phone calls,” she said.

IDBI Bank unions have called a strike on Nov 2 and 3 against govt’s move to sell its stake. Rahul backed the employees. “I stand with you in your fight today, and fully support all your legitimate demands,” he said.Rahul said he had asked a question in Parliament about the reason for the decision to sell a profitable bank.“Govt gave no reason. Now it has decided to sell IDBI Bank to Fairfax, a Canadian company,” he wrote, referring to his meeting with employees last March.