Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday protested against the government’s strike by several state-owned banks, alleging that the sale of public sector banks in the hands of ‘friends of the capitalists’ would jeopardize the country’s economic security. He expressed solidarity with the strike bank employees, saying the government was ‘privatizing profits and nationalizing losses’.

Congress leaders tweeted, ‘The central government is privatizing profits and nationalizing the losses. Selling public sector banks closely would jeopardize India’s financial security. It is noteworthy that banking operations were affected on the first day of the strike by public sector banks in opposition to the proposal to privatize two more public sector banks.

The strike affected cash withdrawal, deposit, check clearing and transactions in public sector banks. The strike was organized on March 15 and 16 by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), a coalition of nine unions. The union claims that about 1 million bank employees and officials were involved in the strike.