'Self-appointed competent doctors': Sitharaman's come back at Chidambaram after attack over Yes Bank crisis

Under attack over Yes Bank crisis, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday hit back Congress leader P Chidambaram, saying that exposure of the private lender to some of the very stressed corporates started before 2014 when the UPA was in power.

"The exposure of Yes Bank to some of the very stressed corporates has been before 2014. These are public domain names and I am not violating any customer privacy - Anil Ambani (Group), Essel Group, DHFL, IL&FS (and) Vodafone are some of the very stressed corporate to whom Yes Bank has been exposed," she said in response to attacks by the Congress after Yes Bank was placed under one-month moratorium by the Reserve Bank of India.

The withdrawal limit has also been capped at Rs 50,000 owing to the financial position of the bank.

Attacking former finance minister Chidambaram, Sitharaman said "self-appointed competent doctors" created more problems in handling crisis at three banks during the UPA regime.

Chidambaram had said Yes Bank's loan book swelled five times under BJP rule Rs 55,633 crore to Rs 2,41,499 crore.

Addressing a press conference on the Yes Bank crisis, Sitharaman said the lender's exposure to stressed corporates dates before 2014.

"I am not here to continue carrying the stories of legacy. Yes, the Indian banking system has had severe challenges thanks to the way in which the government which existed between 2004-14 had handled the matter. I have reasons to put the blame on them," she said as she went on to question Chidambaram's handling of the crisis at two banks under the UPA-1 rule.

"So-called self-appointed competent doctors were in charge when United Western Bank was almost on the verge of collapse in 2006 and was forcefully merged with IDBI," she said.

"Today if I have problems restoring good health of IDBI, I am giving you good examples of how self-appointed competent doctors had handled UWB merger with IDBI," she said, adding that IDBI went down because of UWB.

"That was the treatment offered by those who speak today."

"We have ensured that the interest of customers is kept safe, we are doing that. Their solution for UWB has resulted in IDBI also losing its base," she said.

Adding Global Trust Bank was merged with OBC and Ganesh Bank of Kurudher was merged with a private bank, the Finance Minister said, "In all three you merged and washed your hands off."

Chidambaram was the finance minister when the Congress-led UPA had come to power in May 2004.

Responding to the Finance Minister's charges, Chidambaram said, "Listened to FM’s address to the media. It is obvious that the crisis has been in the making since 2017 and the government did practically nothing except “talk to the RBI”."

Sitharaman had said in the presser that the RBI had been continuously monitoring and scrutinising Yes Bank since 2017.

In another tweet, the senior Congress leader said, "As expected, the FM has indirectly blamed the UPA for the near collapse of YES Bank contrary to her own claim that the crisis started in 2017."

"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 Rs 55,633 crore in March 2014 to Rs 2,41,999 crore in March 2019?" he added.

"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.

"Naturally, FM blamed the “legacy” of UPA. She will say that for the rest of the tenure of the BJP government!" he added.