Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday brushed aside suggestions of any ‘confrontation’ with the Reserve Bank of India, saying instead that North Block and Mint Street have only different views on some aspects of the broader money management. “Having an opinion (that is) different is not confrontation,” Jaitley said.
“You’ve had several incidents where governments in the past have had a different view from what RBI had, and then those differences have been settled, or the governors have made way.” He was speaking ahead of Friday’s board meeting at RBI, where a new governor stepped in Tuesday after his predecessor resigned abruptly.
“As a sovereign accountable government, we find this problem is real as far as the Indian economy is concerned and, therefore, in order to maintain our place as a high-growth economy, this is a problem the RBI must address. How is it an issue of confrontation?” Jaitley asked.
He also cited resignations by RBI governors under past governments, including the exit of Benegal Rama Rau during Nehru’s time. “PM Nehru asked Rama Rau to resign, Indira Gandhi asked Governor S Jagannathan to resign, FM Yashwant Sinha asked RN Malhotra to resign…. during P Chidambaram’s tenure you had two governors with whom he was not on talking terms,” the minister said.