Shri Gurumurthy's unacceptable disrespectful slang on PSB staff

 Are PSB Staff கழிசடை ("leftovers in the filter")?

Disrespectful Comment from Editor, Thuglak Magazine

When the reputed Tamil magazine “Thuglak”, known for its unbiased political views (and enjoyable satires from the late Shri “Cho’ Ramasamy, the present Shri Satya and the like), celebrated its 52^nd Anniversary Celebrations in Chennai, where Hon’ble Finance Minister gave an impressive speech on current affairs, no one would have imagined that the current editor of the magazine, Shri S.Gurumurthy will make a ‘spoke in the wheel’ by his uncharitable remark about public sector bank (PSB) staff.  He said that that the staff in the PSBs are only கழிசடைகள் (meaning ‘leftovers in the filter”) and it is with them that the country has to compete globally in the financial sector. (Annexure I). This was uncalled for and promptly Shri Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA condemned the remarks and demanded removal of Shri Gurumurthy from the board of RBI, as he is unfit to continue.

Shortly thereafter, ‘mail from Gurumurthy to Venkatachalam” started doing its rounds in “whatsapp” groups. I happened to go through the reply from Shri S.Gurumurthy.(Annexure II) Quite expected of him, Shri Gurumurthy narrated about the campaigns held against him in the past starting from the year 1987, to drive home that he is not afraid of campaigns against him. He also talked about being invited to AIBEA workshop by the same general secretary in the past. He brought his own theory about the NPAs in the banks reported since 2014, without uttering a word about the ‘external frauds’ that rocked the banking system. He also says in his reply that he resisted within RBI all efforts to pressure the government to privatise when the previous RBI governors were in command. Surprising efforts from a man who bats for private sector always!

As the editor of Thuglak did not show any regret for the remarks made about PSB staff and the facts presented were conveniently picked at random to defend his disrespectful slang, I reproduce the e-mail sent by me to Shri Gurumurthy, addressed to him in his capacity as Editor, Thuglak Magazine.

Quote:

Dear Thuglak Editor Shri S.Gurumurthy,

Desertion from PSBs started from reform days in 1992 and the peak was 1996-2005 and not after 2011, as you would like us to believe. I happen to be one of those கழிசடைகள், who chose to remain with a PSB till retirement in 2017.

Even if you forget the past deeds of PSBs, which changed the destiny of the economy and the nation since 1969, our contribution to the society continues even today. A few such noteworthy achievements of PSBs after 2014 are:

1.     We bore the brunt of the workload due to demonetisation of bank notes. Not a single complaint of not exchanging the notes from public, though the operating staff ‘burnt their midnight oil’ to complete the task within stipulated time, never recognised in the way it should have been.

2.     98% of more than 43 crores of PMJDY accounts were opened thro PSBs till date. The government schemes including DBT and credit to farmers owe their success to this single factor

3.     MUDRA, the brainchild of this government, owes its success to PSBs taking care of the credit needs of crores of aspirant small entrepreneurs, applying under the scheme.

4.     Hon’ble FM mentioned about one facet of COVID only -  Bank employees reaching out to customers to extend cash. (Hundreds of staff lost their lives during the COVID period). A few more that owe their success to PSBs, that relate to ensuring livelihood in the period of COVID, are

·        Emergency credit line to MSMEs and other eligible borrowers (More than Rs.2.5 lac crore disbursed)

·         restructuring lacs of loan accounts and

·        Uninterrupted credit growth to ‘the identified’ priority sectors even during the pandemic.

5.     5. NPAs in the banking system after 2008 happened mainly because of frauds by top corporate houses including diversion to group entities and siphoning. Mrs. Chanda Kochhar and Mr.Rana Kapoor, alleged to have colluded with borrowers, belong to PvBs. You try to cover the entire issue under recession, as if the NPAs were a result of economic failure. Both PSBs and PvBs were victims to the NPAs,, but the impact of PSB was much more due to our exposure to infrastructure and that we were not capitalised adequately to absorb losses. But when the government capitalised PSBs between 2016-19, PSBs were on growth path once again. Since 2020-21, the results are there for everyone to see. 

6.  Market share is a misnomer if you look at gross bank credit. Look at the composition of credit and concentrated sectors in both PSBs and PvBs. PSBs are well known and PvBs unknown, - “conspicuously”- the former for the inclusion and the latter for the exclusion of the following sectors: Infrastrucutre, Agriculture , Micro MSMEs and Rural Credit.  Let us compare the share between PSBs and PvBs in the above specifics, which guide the nation and economy to overall development. 

7.     Added to the above list is the number of ATMs of PSBs' that serve rural and semi urban, far exceeding that of PvBs.

The above acts are in continuation of what we were doing since nationalisation in 1969. PSBs motto is simple "serve the nation; be a part of the society to which we belong"

Obviously, PSBs did all these through the ‘leftover in the filter’ staff. After doing all these, if one is christened "கழிசடை", I wish to say Lord Krishna is right: He said: Do your duty and do not expect the gains so that you are not disappointed. But the Lord forgot to add "Bear the insults also"

Please realise your folly and express regret. It will only add up to the credibility brought in to the chair of Editor of Thuglak by the late Shri “Cho” Ramasamy.

Unquote

Regards

V.Viswanathan

19^th May 2022.

  Annexure I

The impolite slang in Tamil

Tamil Version (courtesy: AIBEA letter to Shri Gurumurthy) இந்த வங்கிகள் இருக்கே, இதுல பிரச்சனை என்னவென்றால், வங்கித்துனறயில் இருக்கும் திறமையான அதிகாரிகள் எல்லாம் இந்த அரசு வங்கியிலிருந்து வெளியேறுகிறார்கள். காரணம் என்னவென்றால் இங்கு  சம்பளம் குனறச்சல், சுதந்திரம் இல்னல. இங்க இருக்கிறது பூரா கழிசடைகள் (left overs in the filter) எல்லாம் இங்க இருக்காங்க.   English Translation (appeared in  a newspaper) “Talented employees in public sector banks are leaving their jobs since the package is very low and they cannot act independently. Now, all we are left with “Kazhisadaigal” only and it is with them that the country has to compete globally in the financial sector”.

 Annexure II

Mail of Mr.Gurumurthy to Mr.Venkatachalam, (as appeared in some whatsapp groups)

Dear Mr Venkatachalam

I saw your posts on my speech at the Thuglak annual meet on May 8, at Chennai. I would not have written if I had not known you and you had not invited me for the AIBEA workshop. Your post has started a campaign against me. Many campaigns have been attempted against me in the last 4 decades -- here are just a few. 

The first was when the Rajiv Gandhi government got me arrested by the CBI charged me with espionage in 1987 on the basis of a forged letter. The govt got so humiliated when the forgery was proved that the media asked the government to apologise to me [The Statesman editorial 14.3.1987]. The government's credibility hit rock bottom in just weeks after my arrest as it started defending the corruption I was fighting against. It set up the Thakkar Natarajan [Supreme Court judges] Commission which without giving me an opportunity, reached conclusions prejudicial to me. The Commission's report suffered such huge media criticism [India Today 31.12.1987] that it lost its face. The Hindu wrote an editorial titled "Banal and unacceptable [11.12.1987]. It is the two Supreme Court judges who lost their credibility for supporting the government's lie, not me. The report was straight thrown into dustbin. From then on I have faced many many campaigns -- each one has been a failure as I wanted nothing from public life. Arun Nehru once issued a public statement alleging I had taken kickbacks abroad along with VP Singh.  He had to negotiate through Kapil Sibal and tender an unconditional apology to me which was recorded in court [See the Hindu 24.91994] All the media which carried his statement apologised even earlier. [Economic Times 28.2.1993. Deccan Chronicle 20.1.1993]. I have never bothered about the campaigns against me by any, as I don't belong to any party, nor seek or need anyone's courtesy, by the grace of the Divine I believe in.  So this is not to answer any campaign.

But ........I was surprised that a trade union leader like you who knew my views made that post without knowing what I spoke - as most politicians do. I have always opposed and will continue to oppose privatisation as I believe with all faults majority bank assets in India have to be in state hands. The Indian economy will be ruined if the major part of the financial sector falls into private hands with the expansion and contraction of the Rupee dependent on the Dollar. You know my views and that was why you as the AIBEA General secretary had invited me to speak at a workshop of AIBEA. I resisted within RBI all efforts to pressure the govt to privatise when the previous RBI governors were in command. 

Now let me come to what I spoke at the Thuglak meeting. 

I told the meeting -- in a way the FM who was present -- that the UPA policies of letting huge FII investments in to stock market led to indigestible money in the system. To lend that money the govt brought down the customs tariffs to NIL for capital goods to attract the industrialists to borrow from banks -- actually the govt persuaded the industry to go for huge expansions on the hope that India would turn into a high growth export driven economy. But the huge recession that followed 2008-9 made the investments of several lakhs of crore junk and the monies lent, NPA. I have spoken on this many times, as early as April 2014 -- my speech on A decade of economic destruction brought out these facts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfF4GUAE_PQ. This was admitted by Raghuram Rajan himself, though years after he ceased to be the RBI governor.   

That is where the woes of the PSBs started. Not a single political party including the BJP and CPM or the bank unions spoke the truth about the source of the NPA trouble. The guilty finance ministry officials who ran telbanking were mixed up with both UPA and NDA governments, to suppress the truth. I had said this openly. But the NPA issue, action against it by vigilance, CBI, CVC, not to miss the prudential norms, completely shook the bank officers. This gave a huge opportunity to the private banks and funds which had a heyday because the best loan accounts shifted to them. They began giving high salaries and attracting capable PSB officers. Consequently, many many capable officers left the PSBs, which left many filtered ones who could not go in the PSBs -- for which I used the word கழுசடை, which actually means many could not pass through the filter, remained inside. It is a fact and I stand by it. I asked the FM to speak on all this. I am happy she came heavily in defence of PSB employees, which not many FMs in recent times had had the courage to do.  What I said that day in front of the FM should have made the PSBs introspect . It was not about all officers and certainly about all bank staff 

Today no one can deny that many PSB officials lack the will, capacity and the knowledge in a complicated financial world to make credit decisions They are also afraid because of the overhang of the enforcement and legal system. If the PSBs are terrified of positive criticism from one of the ardent supporters and if they don't introspect their decline cannot be arrested.  A person like you must be concerned that because of all this the share of PSB loans in the total banks loans has fallen from 71% to 59% and the share of private banks has gone up from 25% to 35%. 

At this rate the PSBs need not be privatised. They will get so marginalised that they will handle only govt and municipal accounts and all corporate accounts will be taken over by private banks. That we are not having and not generating and training the needed talent in the PSBs to handle 60% of national savings that gets into the PSB is indisputable. It is a matter of concern for all -- government included  

If you are a responsible trade unionist you will be concerned, talk about this and not play petty politics. I wrote this because you had invited me to talk to AIBEA and you know our views converge on PSBs in many ways. 

This is not to clarify as I owe no clarification to people who don't read the full answer of mine to the reader. Anyway it was not a planned question nor a planned answer. It was an instant answer to a sudden question from a reader. 

Yet I am happy I could speak honestly, uninhibited by the presence of the FM  

A small question. Will you have the guts to circulate it to the AIBRA members? 

I will not make this public unless you do it. If you do it, have the courage to publish it in full. I am only copying this mail in confidence to two officials -- the FM and the RBI governor -- to whom you and your party colleagues have written against me. 

I have nothing more to add.  

Regards,

S. Gurumurthy.