‘It has been a fantastic journey... have enjoyed every minute of it’

Several hues of Raghuram Rajan’s personality came to the fore during his last policy statement on Tuesday.

Answering queries from the media with aplomb as was his forte, he let his colleagues chip in with explanations more often than he would normally do.

He was amused at the fact that journos asked him multiple questions whenever their turn came with the average being two questions in one chance provided. After the first journalist asked the question, he remarked “ Three questions, any more?”

He cut short a question from a journalist when reminded of his father’s response to the media on his decision of going back to academia.

Interrupting a reporter he said “I stop you there. My father was surprised by one reporter and I don’t think reporters should be going after families. They should have stayed away. They got in, he gave an answer. I don’t have anything more to say on that.”

On his critics, he said “Look, I have nothing to say. Critics are there all the time. There are also people who send me messages in the plane from the back, anonymous notes, saying thank you for what you are doing. So, you get both sides. That is part of the job and you have to take as the costs and the benefits.

And I think the most important thing is that at the end of the day you feel you have made a useful contribution. And you know some people are better off as a result of it. I think from that perspective, this has been a fantastic journey. I have enjoyed every minute of it, partly because every day when my fellow colleagues at the RBI and I, if we are at work, we manage to move the needle forward a little bit at the end of the day. We leave the office saying we did something. There are very few places where you can have that sense of satisfaction. So, I think, this has been a fantastic experience. I hope there is some value added.”

Finally when he was concluding his statement before taking questions Rajan urged customers to educate bankers that they could self certify the documents whenever they changed residence. He said “One of the biggest sources of harassment for ordinary customers in the banking system is meeting KYC or Know Your Customer rules. Actually, these have been simplified considerably in the recent past, but sometimes your local branch may not know it. For instance, if you move, your new address can be self-certified and you do not need proof of new address. If your branch does not know these simplified norms, please go to the RBI webpage and point it out to them. You will be doing a public service.”

He added that he intended to fully use the 28 days remaining in his tenure as RBI Governor.

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