THE GREAT ₹5,750 CRORE HOUDINI ACT OF SUBBARAMI REDDY & CO.

By C Subrahmanyam | Hyderabad | September 22, 2025

THE HOUDINI ACT IN HYDERABAD

Step into the National Company Law Tribunal, Hyderabad. Curtains rise. Enter the promoters of Gayatri Projects Limited, the empire of ex-Congress strongman T. Subbarami Reddy.

Debt owed to banks: ₹8,100 crore
Dragged into insolvency by SBI: over ₹600 crore dues

But wait — abracadabra! Instead of liquidation or justice, a “One-Time Settlement” is conjured.

Settlement amount: ₹2,400 crore
Vanished debt: ₹5,750 crore
Lender approval: 97%

The banks clap in approval, blessing this Houdini act.

A TALE OF TWO INDIAS

In the India of Bharat’s farmers and small shopkeepers, loans mean:

Humiliation
Seizure of assets
Jail and even death

Miss an EMI, and recovery agents bang at your door.

In the India of corporate titans, loans mean:

Negotiations
Settlements
Write-offs that would make even a pickpocket blush

Scoop has seen this before:

2008: UPA waived ₹71,680 crore for farmers
Telangana (today): Congress boasts of ₹31,000 crore farmer loan waiver

Yet, RBI studies warn:
👉 Waivers breed defaults.
👉 Defaults breed disaster.

But when corporates default, they are rewarded with sweetheart deals, political nods, and a fresh lease of life.

CRONY CAPITALISM, THE INDIAN WAY

Let’s stop pretending. This is not “IBC reform.” This is crony capitalism in a legal robe.

Studies show: Politically connected firms are 17% more likely to get waivers.
Subbarami Reddy, a Congress stalwart, sees his company’s sins laundered with blessings from the same banks that hound small borrowers.

THE PEOPLE’S FURY

On X (Twitter), outrage is volcanic:

“Why do banks suck the blood of the poor but forgive the rich?”
“Financial crime in daylight!”

And they are right. Because when taxpayers’ money props up these bailouts, the people are robbed twice:

Once by the defaulting corporate
Again by the banking system

THE FINAL RECKONING

Let the truth ring out from Bombay to the banks of the Krishna:

India runs two debt systems:

For the poor: merciless, brutal, unforgiving
For the rich: indulgent, generous, politically perfumed

This duality is not an accident — it is the design of a system that serves the powerful first, and the powerless last.

THE VERDICT

This is not merely about Subbarami Reddy.
This is about the soul of Indian banking.

Every time ₹5,750 crore is written off for a corporate baron, and every time a farmer dies for ₹50,000, the Republic is mocked.

Until this dual debt raj is demolished, until bankers treat both big fish and small fry alike — India’s tryst with justice will remain unfulfilled.

BANKS BLEED FOR BARONS AND BLEED THE POOR DRY!