Ahead of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) board meeting in Mumbai today, Congress president Rahul Gandhi hoped RBI Governor, Urjit Patel and his team have a spine and will show Prime Minister Narendra Modi his place.
Rahul Gandhi’s tweet comes minutes after the RBI board meeting began, referring to the RBI governor he hoped Urjit Patel would resist PM Modi’s alleged attempt to destroy each and every independent institution across the country.
The Congress has been accusing the government of undermining the RBI’s autonomy to gain control over its Rs. 9 lakh crore reserves for development work ahead of state and national elections.
Taking to Twitter, Gandhi said: “Mr Modi and his coterie of cronies, continue to destroy every institution they can get their hands on. Today, through his puppets at the #RBIBoardMeet he will attempt to destroy the RBI. I hope Mr Patel and his team have a spine and show him his place.”
Congress senior leader P Chidambaram on November 18 tweeted, “The government is determined to ‘capture’ RBI in order to gain control over the reserves. The other so-called disagreements are only a smokescreen (sic).”
Chidambaram on Twitter wrote that “November 19 (today’s meeting)” will be a day of reckoning for central bank independence and the Indian economy.
Reports claim the government wants the central bank to part with a third of its reserves. The government had denied seeking a massive capital transfer from the RBI but had said that it was discussing an “appropriate” size of capital reserves that the central bank must maintain.
Today’s board meeting is crucial given the differences between the RBI and Finance Ministry on several contentious issues including the transfer of additional surplus from the central bank to the government.
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