The Hindu Business Line : A Reddy show from the word go!

Taking a dig at himself, the Governor, Dr Y.V. Reddy, said he had taken a lot of time with his opening statement at the time of the previous quarterly review to explain his `thoughtful inaction' and offered to go to the questions directly.

As he opened the floor for questions by wondering whether he should start from the left or the right side, someone piped up, "Begin from the centre". Dr Reddy's response was a swift and loaded, "Centre? That's only for politics!" And then he proceeded to start from the left. When a questioner wanted to know if the RBI had vetoed a proposal to confer SLR status on oil bonds, he drew some laughter saying, "I don't know if you are asking for confidential information."

When asked what `unconventional' steps (mentioned in the statement) were being contemplated, he refused to reveal his hand, and said, "It is unconventional, therefore it is unknown at this point of time."

To a correspondent who had multiple questions, Dr Reddy said it made him feel nostalgic - he remembered preparing answers for Parliamentary questions! And when another questioner pointed to the usage of words in the statement such as `uncertainty', `adverse developments', while also sounding optimistic a few paragraphs later, and wondered whether the Governor was preparing for stagflation, Dr Reddy was quick to say "Except for the reference to stagflation, all the other points are mutually consistent!"

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