Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman responds to Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the government’s decision to sell IDBI Bank to Fairfax. The dispute centres on how IDBI’s condition is described and who is blamed for its problems, with Gandhi defending the bank’s employees and opposing the sale.
Across coverage, Sitharaman argues that the Congress-led governments used banks and financial institutions as “personal entities,” and she says this contributed to IDBI being in “poor shape” when the NDA government took over. NDTV and The Economic Times emphasise her assertion that Congress-era bad loans and politically linked favoritism left the bank under strain.
The Hindu frames the response around alleged political influence over lending practices, saying Congress pressured bank employees to lend at their whim. NDTV notes the exchange follows Gandhi’s remarks and positions Sitharaman’s reply as a direct rebuttal, highlighting what the finance minister chose to stress about past bad loans rather than the sale itself.
