This refers to Debashis Basu's column "What Narendra Modi won't ask bankers" (Irrational Choice, December 29). The writer forgets one thing: it is not for nothing that, despite all their ills, it is public sector banks (PSBs) that continue to have over 70 per cent of the share of the banking business in India. How come he forgot the leadership role played by the State Bank of India in continuously financing agriculture and micro and small enterprises, and also modernising and expanding the contours of Indian banking? We have become enamoured of the glitz and polish of few private banks, which shy away from agriculture and infrastructure financing. We are not ready to accept the ground realities: the ills of PSBs merely reflect the ills of the Indian economy.
The writer must ask hard questions of the government and direct his ire towards, for example, its policies on loan waivers and its decisions on the composition of bank boards. This even the new government may find difficult to change. In India, after all, the public sector is the politician's private sector.
Y P Issar, Karnal
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