The Hindu Business Line : Dr. Reddy in his elements

Chennai, July 29 In what might be his last formal monetary policy interaction with the press, the RBI Governor, Dr Y.V.Reddy, (his term comes to an end in September) produced another trademark performance. Few use a combination of frankness and obscure phraseology with the calculated dexterity that he does.

Deftly side-stepping tricky questions, lobbing them back in a different way, sometimes indulgent and sometimes firm, at times a little taciturn but at all times the patient teacher willing to explain the issues, Dr. Reddy was in his elements.

Stern reprimand

The start of the press conference saw a grim Dr Reddy sounding his sternest self, ticking off a couple of wire agencies and TV channels in tones that would remind you of your angry school principal. The reprimand was for breaching the embargo on the release of the policy, a few minutes ahead of its scheduled release.

The questions and answers that followed threw up the usual moments of fun.

One of the bouncers thrown at him: “Will Dr Reddy present the mid term review of the credit policy in October?” That was probably to get a clue to whether Dr Reddy would retire or get his rumoured extension. The seasoned bureaucrat that he is, he ducked that one neatly, saying: “The Governor of the RBI will present the next review!”

To a questioner who refused to let go off the mike and went on with his long-winded questions, Dr Reddy’s controlled sarcasm came through in this: “Thank you for your concluding remarks.” Later, he said, “Stop the questions and let me have an opportunity to speak!”

Team work

At one point, Dr Reddy sounded just a shade too defensive and modest. Calling himself only a ‘glorified spokesperson’, and that he was only the public face of the RBI, he felt that credit for all the positive things should go to the whole institution. He made it a point to mention that he functioned as part of a large team that was accountable to the central board. Seconds later, he brought the house down by saying that now that there were some brickbats for the RBI, he felt he should ‘share the blame with my colleagues’.

To a potentially explosive question on the apparent differences in growth estimates between the RBI on the one hand, the industry associations (at around 7.5%) and the Finance Minister (about 9%), the governor’s response was clever.

He said, “We are in the middle. It is better to be approximately right rather than precisely wrong. Those who think that growth will be more than 8% think the RBI is conservative.”

Dr Reddy firmly ended the speculation about whether there were differences with the Finance Minister with a categorical, “We are always in sync,” statement.

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