'Suit Boot Ki Sarkar' trends again as Rahul Gandhi takes dig at Centre

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took a dig at the Centre over the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) recent proposal to allow large corporate houses as promoters of banks.

The former Congress party president mimicked Union Home Minister Amit Shah's phrase "Chronology samajhiye" (Understand the Chronology) in the tweet.

Last year, Shah used "Aap chronology samajhiye (understand the chronology)" to explain the Bharatiya Janata Party's plan to implement a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Gandhi wrote, "First, karz maafi for few big companies (First, loan waiver for a few big corporate houses). Next, huge tax cuts for companies. Now, give people's savings directly to banks set up by these same companies". He concluded the tweet with the hashtag "Suit Boot Ki Sarkar". The hashtag was soon trending on Twitter. The phrase had become popular after Rahul Gandhi used the phrase to attack the government in parliament in 2015.  

Last Saturday, RBI's internal member committee recommended giving banking licences to large corporate or industrial houses after necessary amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The suggestion also included that large non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) with asset of over Rs 50,000 crore should be allowed to convert into banks.

Gandhi's jibe at the Centre has come a day after former RBI's Governor Raghuram Rajan and former deputy governor Viral Acharya criticised the Central bank's recommendation to allow Indian corporate houses to set up banks. Both Rajan and Acharya said the proposal was a "bad idea". Besides, S&P Global Ratings said that "contagion risk from corporate defaults would also rise significantly if industrial houses were at the helm of a bank".

Also read: Indian corporations in banking is a bad idea: Raghuram Rajan, Viral Acharya