From correspondents in Delhi, India, 02:02 PM IST

Taking a dig at Western societies, Congress president Sonia Gandhi Friday said the same countries that had denounced the nationalisation of banks by then prime minister Indira Gandhi long ago were resorting to similar steps now to bail out their financial sector.

'Our prudence has been most marked in the case of the financial sector... Let me take you back to Indira Gandhi's much reviled bank nationalisation of 40 years ago,' Gandhi said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

'Public sector financial institutions have given our economy the stability and resilience we are now witnessing in the face of the economic slowdown,' she added.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)