Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Former Finance Secretary Subhash Garg’s book We Also Make Policy has exposed some tense interactions between the government and the Reserve Bank of India. According to his book, in a meeting that took place on September 14, 2018, amid the already straining relationship between the government and the Reserve Bank of India, PM Modi lost his cool at then RBI governor Urjit Patel and compared him to a “snake who sits over a hoard of money”.
The details of the meeting conducted to review the state of the economy are narrated in the book published by HarperCollins. According to the excerpt, PM Modi lost his cool after the Governor made presentations that went on for two hours. Then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, then Additional Principal Secretary P K Mishra and two deputy RBI governors were also present in the meeting, Indian Express reported.
In a chapter that is titled 'Governor Urjit Patel Resigns', Garg writes, “He (Patel) offered some recommendations—all for the government to take and nothing for RBI to do, besides what it had been doing already".
Garg further said that “his assessment appeared to be that the RBI was not on top of the situation” and the governing body was not doing its best to resolve the crisis the country was facing at the time and was also not keen on resolving the differences with the government.
“At that stage, the PM lost his cool and took on Urjit Patel". Garg mentioned that he saw the PM in such an angry mood for the first time. "He compared Urjit Patel to a snake who sits over a hoard of money, for being unreceptive to putting RBI’s accumulated reserves to any use.”
According to the chapter, this became the backdrop for the former governor to resign later.
Patel resigned as the RBI Governor on December 10, 2018, citing policy differences with the Centre.