Two Andhra lawmakers write to FM on move to merge Andhra Bank with UBI

The announcement made by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking to merge Andhra Bank with the Union Bank of India as part of banking sector reforms evoked “Andhra sentiment” in the Telugu states.

On Saturday, two parliamentarians – Rajya Sabha member K V P Ramachandra Rao of the Congress and Lok Sabha member from Machilipatnam Vallabhaneni Balashowry from YSR Congress party –wrote letters to the finance minister to drop the plan to merge Andhra Bank with UBI, stating that it would hurt the sentiments of Telugu speaking people.

In his letter, Rao said Andhra Bank, founded in 1923 by Bhogaraju Pattabhi Seetharamayya, a renowned freedom fighter and associate of Mahatma Gandhi, was the only nationalized bank founded in Andhra Pradesh and was considered the pride of the Andhra people in the last 96 years.

“The government might have thought the merger of public sector banks was essential to strengthen the banking system, but merging a bank entangled with the honor of the Telugus and removing its name permanently has definitely hurt their feelings.” He said.

The Congress MP reminded that the people of Andhra Pradesh were already disturbed emotionally following bifurcation of the first linguistic state ignoring their sentiments. They were also agitated with the failure of the BJP government in fulfilling the assurances given to them during the bifurcation of combined AP.

“Now, the government’s decision to wind up Andhra Bank by merging it with UBI will hurt their sentiments. I strongly feel that this at least shall not happen when a daughter-in-law of Andhra state is heading the Union Ministry of Finance,” he said.

In a similar letter to the finance minister, Balashowry said the merger of Andhra Bank with UBI was a very sensitive issue attached to the sentiments of crores of Telugu people. “I request you to reconsider the decision and retain Andhra Bank as a separate public sector bank,” he said.

If the Centre remains firm on its decision to merge the banks, the YSRC MP demanded that the government retain the name of Andhra Bank for the group of banks merged with it, as a mark of respect to Seetharamayya. “At the same time, the headquarters of the three merged banks should be located in Andhra Pradesh,” Balashowry said.

Emotional messages were doing the rounds in the Telugu social media groups in the Telugu states over the merger of Andhra Bank with UBI. “Andhra Bank is the only bank which has the term Andhra. If it is wound up and merged with another bank, it will trigger emotions across the state,” K Ramakrishna, an employee of Andhra Bank in Hyderabad said.

“I am so emotionally attached with Andhra Bank that I opened my first bank account with it. It is sad to know that the bank is going to disappear soon,” J Vasundhara, an old customer of the bank said. “Andhra Bank is a matter of pride for Telugus. It has to continue,” argued P Pavan, another customer.