MUMBAI: After putting an end to the rumors surrounding his appointment as the RBI Governor for the second term by writing an open letter to his staff, Raghuram Rajan asked media to stop personalizing the office of the Reserve Bank of India and said that the RBI can survive any Governor. The Economist magazine has quoted Raghuram Rajan as making the above comments in its latest article.
Rajan, a former IMF chief Economist, often referred to as the ‘Rockstar Central Banker’ for his capabilities to sustain economic pressures will not get another term as the RBI Governor. The fact has been well observed by Raghuram Rajan, even before the news made headlines in the Indian media and resulted in his statement saying ‘he will be stepping down as Governor post completion of his tenure in September’.
It has been a practice with the Indian government to award most of the ongoing RBI Governors a second term. However, Raghuram Rajan will become an exception to this even though he had done his best to protect the interests of the Indian economy. Rajan was successful in containing the Rupee volatility and global market uncertainties since his take over as the RBI Governor in September 2013.
Earlier, we have seen the honorable Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley making statements like ‘India has remained a shining Economy despite of the global Economic crisis’ or ‘India is the best place for investments’. Of course, if those statements are believed to be true to some extent, then one has to accept that Mr Raghuram Rajan has done something respectable for the Indian Economy. After all, a country’s Economic policy cannot be framed without the involvement of the Reserve Bank!.
In spite of being denied a second term, Raghuram Rajan has nothing to worry of. The eminent Economist has earlier wrote to his staff that he will be back to his academia after completing his tenure as the Governor and thanked everyone for being part of his staff during the hardest times.
Though everything seems normal here, a political conspiracy can be easily pointed out. Last month, amid speculations that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in favor of awarding Raghuram Rajan a second term, BJP’s senior member Mr Subramania Swamy wrote to the PM asking to search for a new Governor alleging that the current Governor was not fully capable to handle the Indian Economy.
Following the letter to Modi, there were debates in the media on whether the Prime Minister would heed to Subramania Swamy’s advice. Later on, things changed with BJP leaders backing Mr Swamy and demanding for the change of RBI Governor. At the end, with Mr Modi being an RSS activist himself, has nothing to do but accept his party’s demand.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the name of the new RBI Governor would be finalized soon.