Member Parliament Patiala Preneet Kaur today while extending her support to the clarion call of Nationwide Bank Strike by the United Forum of Banks Union, slammed the BJP led central government for it's move to privatise Public Sector Banks, as announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her recent budget speech.
In her letter to the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Preneet Kaur pointed out that, "The Privatization of the banks would incontrovertibility result in denial of easy next door at safe banking to populous of the country and will also be regressive in as much as it turns the clock back to class banking from mass banking."
In her letter the Member Parliament from Patiala further said that she supports the agitation of 10 lakh Bank Employees and Officers, who are on two days strike from 15th & 16th March 2021 against the Government's announcement to privatise Public Banks and urged the Finance Minister to consider the demands of the bank unions sympathetically.
Later in a statement issued here, Preneet Kaur said that, "The public sector banks are the very vehicles of our economy’s growth and development and are also an important need for every strata of society, be it businessmen, common households, farmers, landless labourers, etc. The move to privatise these banks is not only shocking but also against the interest of people the country."
She further pointed out that, "51 years back private banks were nationalized by then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi because private corporates were not at all channelising public savings towards the development of the country. Since then these public sector banks have played a huge role in the overall development of the nation."
The Patiala MP slammed the BJP government saying that, "This current regime is hell bent on destroying the well built economic ecosystem of the country by trying to privatise everything. On one hand they are privatising farming by bringing the 3 draconian anti farm laws and now on the other hand they are trying to privatise public sector banks and are also planning to sell their stake in LIC. These foolish steps being taken by the BJP are just to cover up the government's own economic failure and to compensate for the economic disaster that they have brought upon India."
"The BJP led central government is trying to privatise all the public undertakings just for the gains of their corporate friends and overlords", Preneet Kaur further pointed out.
She further said that, "This BJP government is no longer a government for the people, as instead it has become the government of and for the Corporates. On one hand the government is doing nothing to save our banking system on which crores of Indians rely, and at the same time the government is continuously waiving of loans of big industrialists."
Preneet Kaur also demanded that, "Instead of privatising public sector banks and shrugging off their responsibility, the government should instead work towards strengthening the public banking system, as they are the lifeline of our country's economy."