There is widespread speculation in banking circles that the strategic sale to Fairfax is designed to allow a back door entry into banking to an industrial house. The Reserve Bank of India rules no not permit industrial groups to own banks in order to prevent them from raising cheap financing for themselves. The sale of IDBI Bank to Fairfax, which has no known or real interest or experience in banking, they apprehend, is designed to allow crony capitalists to run the show.
C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), reiterated the organisation’s opposition to bank privatisation and extended support to the movement to save IDBI Bank.
Addressing a national convention of IDBI Bank employees at the Constitution Club, he said bank employees had gone on strike as many as 55 times over the past 35 years, preventing the government from privatising public sector banks.
He reminded IDBI officers and employees that they had often chosen to remain aloof from political actions initiated by central trade unions, maintaining that bank employees should restrict their agitations to issues concerning their own service conditions, such as transfers and promotions.
Recalling the nationwide bank strike in February this year, he said crores of bank employees had participated, while IDBI employees had chosen to stay away.
Arguing that remaining aloof was no longer an option, he questioned whether bank employees could afford to stay away when farmers, students and workers from other sectors were protesting against privatisation and government policies. “When others are opposing the privatisation of public sector undertakings, is it wise for us to remain indifferent and focus only on our own service conditions?” he asked.
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