Finance Minister hits out at Congress over criticism of IDBI Bank

Amid the ongoing controversy regarding the sale of IDBI Bank's stake, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has launched a scathing attack on the Congress party and the previous UPA government. Sitharaman alleged that Congress used banks and financial institutions as "personal entities" and that bank employees were pressured to disburse loans at their discretion, which violated prudent lending rules.

Sitharaman responded to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's statements regarding IDBI Bank through a post on the social media platform X. She also cited several instances from the Congress-led government. She stated that in 1976, during Indira Gandhi's tenure, State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman R.K. Talwar was removed on the grounds that he did not yield to political pressure to relax lending norms for a company associated with Sanjay Gandhi.

Futhermore, the Finance Minister stated that IDBI Bank was handed over to them in an extremely poor condition. She said that IDBI Bank was forced to grant loans to large business groups having close ties with Congress leaders, such as Videocon, Winsome, ABG Shipyard, and Kingfisher. These loans subsequently turned into bad loans, causing massive losses to IDBI Bank, which the current government has acknowledged.

Sitharaman claimed that the NDA government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has revived IDBI Bank through professionalism, caution, and recapitalisation of over ₹25,000 crore. She added that IDBI Bank is now ready for its next phase of growth and that all due procedures have been followed in the strategic restructuring of IDBI Bank.

On the other hand, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi expressed solidarity with the employees of IDBI Bank and raised questions against the government's decision to sell a profitable public sector bank to a Canadian company. He emphasized that public sector banks are not assets to be sold, but instruments for nation-building.

In a letter written to the family members of IDBI Bank in March last year, Rahul Gandhi stated that a group of IDBI Bank employees met him at the Parliament House and asked a simple question as to why the government was selling a bank that they had made profitable. Gandhi said that he raised this question in the Lok Sabha as well, asking why a profitable public sector bank was being sold and how its employees and depositors would be protected, but the government gave no reason. Now the government has decided to sell IDBI Bank to a Canadian company named Fairfax.

Attacking Rahul Gandhi's allegations, Sitharaman said that his allegations regarding the Rafale deal had been exposed earlier and he had to apologize. She said your lies regarding Rafale failed and were exposed, you had to apologize and the same will happen here.

The Finance Minister further added that in the Congress era, banking had a phonebook for powerful people and a rulebook for ordinary citizens. She said that the era of 'connection and setting banking' is now over. It has now become easier for common people to get loans and employees are not pressured to grant loans through phone calls.

On October 14, 2026, the government approved the sale of a 60.72 percent stake in IDBI Bank to Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings for approximately ₹53,000 crore ($5.5 billion). This transaction will be the largest foreign investment in an Indian bank and will prove to be a significant milestone in the country's long-delayed banking privatization campaign.

Fairfax will act as the strategic buyer of the government's 30.48 percent stake, valued at approximately ₹26,620 crore, as well as the 30.24 percent stake held by LIC, valued at approximately ₹26,440 crore. This strategic transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the current financial year, subject to regulatory approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).