Rahul Gandhi questions sale of IDBI Bank, FM Sitharaman counters

Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday expressed solidarity with IDBI Bank employees as he questioned the government’s decision to sell its majority stake in the lender and transfer management control to a Canadian company.

In a letter posted on X, the Congress leader said a group of IDBI Bank employees had met him in the Parliament complex in March last year and asked why the “government is selling a bank that they had made 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,” Gandhi said.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman rejected Gandhi’s allegations and said “all due process was followed in the IDBI Bank strategic restructuring”. “We all know how @INCIndia has used Banks and financial institutions as personal entities and pressured bank employees to extend loans at their whim, bypassing prudent lending norms,” she posted on X.

There was no immediate response from the BJP, IDBI Bank or Fairfax. The copy will be updated with their replies.

The Union Cabinet on October 14 approved the strategic sale of a 60.72% stake in IDBI Bank Ltd, along with the transfer of management control to Canadian financial services company Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd for ₹52,878.08 crore, in the largest strategic disinvestment deal ever, and also the largest investment by a foreign financial services company in the country.

The government infused around ₹25,000 crore capital in IDBI Bank between 2010-2020. The bank’s gross NPA was 31.78% in September 2018. This came down to 2.32% in March 2026, according to government data. The bank’s net NPA is also reduced significantly — from 17.30% in September 2018 to 0.15% in March 2026.

Gandhi also said the sale would end reservation for Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Class (OBC) candidates in the bank once it came under private ownership.

“Your service conditions, already weakened, will lose their last protection. The Congress has always believed in a strong public sector working alongside the private sector. Public banks are not assets to be sold off, they are tools to build the nation,” he added.

In a post accompanying the letter on X, Gandhi said: “During Congress’s time, banks were being created. During Modi’s time, they are being sold. I stand with the employees of IDBI Bank.”