IN PSU BANKS, A RISE OF HASHTAG ACTIVISM

Frustrated with the older trade unions, some bankers have started amassing support on social media

- Shayan Ghosh

At the peak of India's covid-19 lockdown in June 2020, a cop was caught on video assaulting a female banker inside a branch in Surat, Gujarat. A video of the incident soon went viral. On social media site X, formerly Twitter, the video was amplified by a number of accounts, including that of a person who goes by the name Newton Bank Kumar. The name is a reference to the Bollywood film Newton, about an idealistic civil seravant who is sent on election duty in the insurgency-hit jungles of central India.

Posts and reposts of the video worked. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took cognizance of the incident. News agency PTI reported that the constable was eventually suspended from duty and arrested.

On X, Newton Bank Kumar (@idesibanda) has over 76,000 followers. Among them is Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Paytm. Newton is among a handful of bankers who are using social media to register their protest against issues that include management decisions, the wrongful portrayal of public sector banks, lackadaisical bank unions, wage negotiations, working conditions, and even the sale of public sector banks (PSBS).

The way employees of state-owned banks agitate against the management is changing. Organized labour unions with clear political affiliations have been the face of activism for long. They stage physical protests, marches with flags and at times resort to strikes. The new cohort of technology-savvy employees prefer the anonymity that platforms such as X provide. And instead of strikes, satire and even humour are among the weapons in their arsenal.