Congress built banks, BJP is selling them: Rahul Gandhi's attack over IDBI Bank sale

Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has backed IDBI Bank employees opposing the Centre's proposed sale of its majority stake in the lender to Canada-based Fairfax Financial Holdings, accusing the government of selling a profitable public institution built with taxpayers' money.

In an open letter to the bank's employees, Gandhi questioned the rationale behind privatising IDBI Bank and raised concerns over the impact of the proposed transaction on employees, depositors and reservation policies.

His intervention comes amid fresh questions over the valuation process for the proposed sale, with a Businessworld investigation flagging the timing of a revised valuation exercise and changes in its methodology. (Credits: X/Rahul Gandhi)

Recalling a meeting with a group of IDBI Bank employees at Parliament House in March last year, Gandhi said they had asked him why the government was selling a bank that its employees had helped make profitable.

"I took that question to the Lok Sabha. I asked why a profitable public bank was being sold, and how its employees and depositors would be protected. The government gave no reason. Now it has decided to sell IDBI Bank to Fairfax, a Canadian company," he wrote.

Gandhi also referred to a 2003 assurance given by the government to Parliament that it would always retain at least 51 per cent ownership in IDBI Bank.

"An institution built with public money belongs to the public.... In 2003, the government promised Parliament that it would always hold at least fifty-one per cent of IDBI," he said.

He added that although the assurance might not be legally binding, it represented a commitment made to the people of India.- Ends