New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Shaktisinh Gohil on Monday flagged alleged large-scale irregularities and lack of transparency in the proposed sale of IDBI Bank to Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings, demanding an immediate halt to the disinvestment process and a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe.
Addressing a press conference, Gohil alleged that the bank was being bought with its own money.
Citing an analyst’s conversation with Fairfax Chairman Prem Watsa and President Peter Clarke, he claimed they had indicated that the payment would be made in instalments, with the company initially providing some funds and subsequently using the bank’s own resources for the remaining amount.
Gohil said the government was selling a profitable public sector bank to a foreign company after revising its valuation.
He noted that the shares were initially valued at Rs 94.42 but later revised to Rs 75 after bids from only two prospective buyers were opened. The government is now claiming a good deal at Rs 81 per share.
He demanded that both the original and revised valuation reports be made public along with complete details of the second bidder.
He recalled that the then Finance Minister Jaswant Singh had assured Parliament in 2003 that the government’s shareholding in IDBI Bank would never fall below 51 per cent. Gohil said this assurance had been reduced to a “jumla”.
He pointed out that the bank had earned a profit of Rs 30,105 crore between 2021 and 2026. Gohil also raised concerns over the bank’s real estate assets, including 29 valuable properties, among them 50 acres of land in Hyderabad’s Cyber City.
He warned that the loss of public sector status would adversely affect reservation benefits for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, persons with disabilities and women.
Questioning the silence of the RSS and Swadeshi Jagran Manch, Gohil demanded an immediate halt to the sale, a JPC probe into the entire process, and full public disclosure of the valuation reports and funding details of the acquiring company.
(IANS)
