New Delhi, Oct. 30 -- Targeting the Congress party, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday launched a robust defence of the NDA government's strategic disinvestment of IDBI Bank, while accusing past Congress-led administrations of systemic financial mismanagement, political cronyism, and coercing public sector banks into reckless lending.

The statement comes in direct response to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's sharp criticism regarding the proposed sale of a controlling stake in IDBI Bank to a subsidiary of Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings.

In a post on X, Sitharaman cited a litany of historical controversies and economic mismanagement spanning decades to illustrate how previous administrations allegedly subverted f...