The bankers, holding posters and shouting slogans have created an uproar on the Indian streets after the United Forum of Bank Union (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions, called for a two-day nationwide strike on March 15th and 16th. The minds were filled with furor until the strike. All this started on February 24th after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s tweet. She tweeted, “Embargo lifted on a grant of Govt business to private banks. All banks can now participate. Private banks can now be equal partners in the development of the Indian economy, furthering Govt’s social sector initiatives, and enhancing customer convenience.” Soon after that, the Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, and the Central Bank of India were shortlisted for privatization. Earlier, only two banks were said to be privatized but when announced, there were four which was a shocker, leading to objections.
Due to the bank strike, major services like cash withdrawals, deposits, cheque clearing, and business transactions remained impacted across India. Lakhs of bank employees from over 80,000 branches across India participated in the strike. As all the bank services were shut, C.H. Venkatachalam, the General Secretary of All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) claimed that about 2 crore cheques/installments worth about Rs 16,500 crore are held for clearance. He said that the normal banking transactions have also been affected with managers to clerks taking part in the strike. The agitators said that the strike had affected banking transactions at least by Rs 500 crore.
Several ATMs in and around the railway stations had drained due to no replenishment amid the strike. The protesters were sitting outside the branches of the banks. ATMs were locked. According to the Punjab National Bank Employees Association, AP Singh, the transaction of Rs 400 crore was affected in Bihar. Even private banks like HDFC, IDBI, and ICICI were not allowed to open.
Not only on the streets, but the protest against the privatization of banks is also going on social media. Following the bank strike, the social media giant, Twitter is flooded with millions of tweets in support of the bankers. Twitter users have been targeting the govt. Over 40,000 people tweeted under the hashtag #BankSrgicalStrike, making it the top trend on Twitter. Jagjit Singh Kurangawali, a Twitter user expressed his pain against the privatization by tweeting, “In 1969, Iron Lady of India, “Smt Indira Gandhi” nationalized all anti-national banks & rest is history ! 5 decades down, hyper-nationalism wholesale govt anti-nationalizing all banks again! Can you find the Hypocrisy here at least, please? Wake up!” Many have asked questions from the government too. “Who will give education loans to the aspiring youths of India. On one hand, you are privatizing PSBs, and on the other, you are also privatizing top institutions of India.” – a tweet read. The questions are millions but the answer is yet not clear. The main reason behind opposing privatization is the argument that it will widen the gap between rich and poor.
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