Lashing out at Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on state-run banks, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said he has a penchant for making baseless statements.

Gandhi had accused the government of misusing state-run banks and their wealth over which the finance minister said, “Rahul Gandhi has a penchant for making baseless statements and the fact is that high concentration of corporate credit and indiscriminate lending during UPA tenure had resulted in significant deterioration in the health of public sector banks,” she said in a series of posts on X.

Gandhi alleged that the PSBs (public sector banks) had been turned into “private financiers” only for the rich and powerful corporations and were being forced to prioritize profit over people and unable to serve the people effectively.

Rahul also said that with staff shortages and “toxic work environment”, PSBs are expected to reach unachievable targets without being provided a level playing field.

Rahul had met a delegation of the All India Banking Officers Confederation and took to X to draw the attention of the government on the state of PSBs. “Modi govt must stop using PSBs as an unlimited source of funds for their fraudulent friends. There’s also more to a public sector bank than a dividend cheque to the govt at the end of the year,” he said on X.

The Finance Minister had called the allegation an insult to the hardworking employees and to the citizens who benefit from a cleaner, stronger banking system.

“Banking sector, especially public sector banks (PSBs), have seen a remarkable turnaround under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” she said.

“Rahul Gandhi’s misrepresentation of facts is an insult to the hardworking PSB employees and to the citizens who benefit from a cleaner, stronger banking system. It’s high time the INCIndia up-skills the LOP’s understanding of governance,” she said in her post.

Bank employees were harassed and forced to give loans to cronies through “phone banking” by earlier Congress-led UPA government functionaries, she said in her post.

“Didn’t the people who met with the LoP tell him that the asset quality review was launched by our government in 2015, unearthing the ‘phone banking’ practices of the UPA? The Modi government took charge to initiate the reforms in the banking sector such as ‘4Rs’ strategy,” she said.