Just two days after the government accused Rahul Gandhi of spreading ‘toxicity’ over the state of affairs at the Tata Group, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday again targeted the Congress after the Leader of Opposition questioned the proposed sale of IDBI Bank to Canada-based financial holding firm Fairfax.Following Rahul’s support to IDBI employees over the deal which the critics have questioned as cheap, Sitharaman said everyone knows how the Congress used banks and financial institutions as personal entities and pressured bank employees to extend loans at their whim, bypassing prudent lending norms.Also read: Rahul Gandhi backs IDBI Bank employees, accuses Modi govt of selling public institutionCiting examples Nirmala said: “In 1957, Haridas Mundra got money from LIC due to influence by the Congress leaders; in 1976, Indira Gandhi’s government removed SBI Chairman RK Talwar after he refused political pressure to relax lending conditions for a company linked to Sanjay Gandhi’s circle; Sanjay Gandhi pressured the Central Bank of India over loans to Maruti; B. Janardhana Poojary, MoS Finance under Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi — pressured bank employees to issue loans in the 1980s; Pawan Kumar Bansal, as a minister in the UPA, pressured Canara Bank to give loans to his family-linked businesses.”The FM said the IDBI Bank was handed over to the BJP government in poor shape, as IDBI itself was forced to lend to large business groups with close connections to Congress leaders such as Videocon, Winsome, ABG Shipyard, Kingfisher, etc.”These turned into bad loans, causing huge losses for IDBI Bank, which we recognised. The NDA government led by PM Modi revived the IDBI bank through professionalism, prudence and recapitalisation of more than Rs 25,000 crores. The IDBI Bank is now poised for its next phase of growth,” the FM said.She added that all due process has been followed in the IDBI Bank strategic restructuring.”Many more instances of blatant scams and economic mismanagement have been covered in the White Paper on the Indian Economy released in February 2024. It remains relevant even now.””Rahul Gandhi’s lies with respect to Rafale had failed and were exposed. He had to apologise. The same will happen here. Congress-era banking had a phonebook for the powerful and a rulebook for the common citizens. The era of ‘connection and setting banking’ is over. Common people now have easy access to loans, and employees are not under pressure to extend loans over the phone calls,” said FM, after Gandhi tweeted his support for IDBI employees.