Sometimes when I listen to the Finance Minister, I feel the UPA is still in power, P Chidambaram said.
New Delhi:
Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday said the State Bank of India's rescue plan for the crisis-hit Yes Bank was "bizarre", targeting the BJP-led central government over a massive oversight failure that allowed a 35 per cent per year jump in its loan book since 2014.
"The SBI plan of purchasing a bank with zero net value at Rs 10 per share is bizarre. I don't get the impression that SBI was a volunteer in the rescue act. Just as LIC wasn't for IDBI. These are command performances," Mr Chidambaram said.
Outlining a restructuring plan for Yes Bank after restrictions imposed by the RBI, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday had lashed out at opposition criticism, stressing that the crisis originated on Congress watch. She also mocked senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, one of her predecessors, as a "self-appointed competent doctor" and questioned his track record.
On Saturday, Mr Chidambaram countered her, saying, "Sometimes when I listen to the Finance Minister, I feel the UPA is still in power, I am still the finance minister and she is the opposition."
Laying the blame squarely on the BJP-led government at the centre, the Congress leader said, "Obviously if you mismanage, you will lurch from one crisis to another."
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