The ₹50,000 cap on withdrawal by depositors of Yes Bank by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) triggered sharp reactions from Congress leaders on Friday. Senior leader and former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the government’s ‘ability to govern and regulate financial institutions stands exposed’.
In a series of tweets, Mr. Chidambaram asked the government to explain how the loan book of Yes Bank saw a massive jump between 2014 and 2019. He targetted Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for being silent over it.
“BJP has been in power for six years. Their ability to govern and regulate financial institutions stands exposed. First, it was PMC Bank. Now it is YES Bank. Is the government concerned at all? Can it shirk its responsibility? Is there a third bank in the line?,” Mr. Chidambaram said in a tweet.
“Did you notice that the FM did not acknowledge the numbers of the loan book of YES Bank? Did you notice that FM did not explain how the loan book miraculously jumped from ₹55,633 crore in March 2014 to ₹2,41,999 crore in March 2019?”, he said in a tweet after Ms Sitharaman’s press conference.
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“When overall bank credit during the above period grew by about 10 per cent, how did YES BANK's loan book grow by about 35 per cent?,” he asked and inquired if State Bank of India would now invest in Yes Bank.
“FM was focused on what happened during the UPA. What happened was UPA did not allow any bank to reach a state of collapse. Under UPA, weak banks were merged with other banks well in time to avoid a crisis,”, he said in another tweet and credited former RBI Governors C Rangarajan and Y V Reddy.
“Why doesn’t the FM call them and ask them to explain their decisions? She might find that the decisions were correct and taken by competent Governors,” he said. “Naturally, FM blamed the “legacy” of UPA. She will say that for the rest of the tenure of the BJP government!”, he said.
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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi too took a dig at the government and targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “No Yes Bank. Modi and his ideas have destroyed India's economy,” he said in a tweet.
