Letters: Undermining autonomy

With reference to Subhomoy Bhattacharjee’s report, “Move to change RBI governor ranking” (August 22), it is not correct to consider the Reserve Bank of India governor as a regulator. Other regulators are responsible for specific segments of the economy, such as securities market and insurance, whereas the RBI governor is responsible for macroeconomic stability. RBI actions have a much wider impact on the economy and monetary policy supplements fiscal and other public policies.

Making the RBI governor’s position subordinate to that of the Cabinet secretary indicates the government’s intention to undermine the central bank’s autonomy and let the bureaucracy always have an upper hand.

Outgoing RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan was seeking to upgrade the governor’s position to that of a cabinet minister. The deputy chairman of NITI Aayog is of the rank of a cabinet minister; the national security advisor, who functions only in an advisory capacity, has the rank of a minister of state.

It is clever of the government to leak the plan at this juncture when the incumbent governor is not in a position to make an issue out of it.

C Chandrasekhar Mumbai

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