Nirmala Sitharaman Fires Back At Rahul Gandhi’s Public Sector Bank Remarks, Says ‘PSBs Treated As ATMs Under Cong Rule’
Nirmala Sitharaman, the finance minister, criticised Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, on Wednesday for making “baseless statements” about India’s public sector banks (PSB).
Rahul Gandhi said earlier in the day in an X post that public sector banks are “forced to prioritise profit over people and are therefore unable to serve the public effectively.”
“Public Sector Banks were designed to give every Indian access to credit. The Modi government has turned these lifelines of the masses into private financiers for only the rich and powerful corporations,” Gandhi said.Nirmala Sitharaman
The former Congress president also said that the public sector banks, with staff shortage and toxic work environment, are expected to reach unachievable targets without a level playing field.
He added, “Women employees are not given equal opportunity or advancement and forced to bear the brunt of dissatisfied public. Modi govt must stop using PSBs as an unlimited source of funds for their fraudulent friends. There’s also more to a public sector bank than a dividend cheque to the govt at the end of the year.”
In response to Gandhi’s remarks, Sitharaman claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership had brought about a “remarkable turnaround” in India’s banking industry, particularly in the PSBs.Nirmala Sitharaman
Leader of the Opposition (LoP) @RahulGandhi’s penchant for making baseless statements is on full display, yet again.
India’s banking sector, especially Public Sector Banks (PSBs), have seen a remarkable turnaround under @PMOIndia @narendramodiDidn’t the people who met with the…
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) December 11, 2024
“Didn’t the people who met with the LoP tell him that high concentration of corporate credit and indiscriminate lending during UPA tenure had resulted in significant deterioration in the health of PSBs? Under INCIndia, PSBs were treated as ‘ATMs’ for their cronies and shady businessmen,” Sitharaman said in an X post.
She further said that during UPA government, bank employees were harassed and forced to give loans to cronies via ‘phone banking’ by the then Congress-led UPA govt functionaries.
Nirmala Sitharaman continued her criticism of Rahul Gandhi by claiming that the Indian public also owns shares in public sector banks and that dividends are a source of income for these investors.Nirmala Sitharaman‘Locals roaming streets with AK-47 guns’: Indian national rescued from Syria recalls ordeal | VIDEO
