mumbai when idbi bank md kishor p kharat organized nationwide town hall meetings to allay concerns about the bank he didnt budget for an army of employees who would turn up wearing black and in many places waive black flags to protest against the lenders proposed privatization he also didnt anticipate that his top management would have to answer questions about loans given to kingfisher or the banks recovery strategy at a time when he is trying to undertake transformationbut this is exactly what happened on saturday when kharat deputy md b k batra and other senior executives fanned out to 15 centres to get employees to drop their plans to disrupt business at the bank for nine days starting thursday not only were they greeted with loud protests often delaying the meeting but the young employees who now outnumber the seniors also spoke their mind said sources this is visible in videos shared on whatsapp where employees are seen shouting slogans against the top executives idbi bank should have actually seen it coming given the strong protests lodged on the banks intranet with some going to the extent of threatening suicide if the management allowed the government to reduce its stake to below 49 a first in public sector banks what has added to the employee ire is the fact that the idbi management has not given a clear response on the plan to reduce the centres stake although finance minister arun jaitley mentioned it in his budget speechat the meetings the idbi brass sought to suggest that the bank was undertaking a transformation over the next few years which will see it expand its balance sheet and improve profitability but several employees thumbed down the plan and suggested that instead of settling loans the bank would do well to recover them when some of the executives suggested that idbi had an aggressive plan to recover the loans some employees shouted back and asked what was the plan to recover dues from vijay mallyas kingfisher airlines where some of the bank executives are being investigated by cbi and the enforcement directorate similarly employees wanted to know how privatization would help in case of lossmaking idbi bank when other banks would see mergers when confronted with the plan to privatize the management suggested that employees should ask the government something that was clearly not acceptable to them our members have shown very strong opposition to the governments plan a second round of talks for conciliation has also failed said a v vithal koteswara rao convener of the united platform of idbi bank unions rao said the employees were willing to come on saturday so that some banking activity can take place and they had sought clarity if transactions would be permitted since all banks are shut on the fourth saturday