The new Government should respect the appointment of Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan who was selected to head the central bank on the basis of his reputation, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said.
“The central bank governor was appointed based on his reputation... Every government must respect this appointment,” he said in Astana, Kazakhstan.
His comments to Bloomberg on the sidelines of ADB’s annual conference at Astana, come amid media speculation that the BJP-led NDA, which is projected to perform better than the Congress-led UPA in the general elections, may not be keen to retain Rajan as RBI Governor.
Rajan had last month dismissed talks about his differences with BJP as “media invention”, saying “I haven’t had any discussion with the new government. I think it’s all press invented difference. I think it should be seen as speculation rather than any actual differences”.
His comments came against the backdrop of certain BJP leaders questioning his policies to deal with the current economic woes.
During the eight-month stint, Rajan has raised key policy rate thrice.