NDA govt hell-bent on destroying autonomous institutions:AMIM

With the Union government invoking for the first time a clause of the RBI Act, AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi Wednesday alleged that the BJP-led NDA government was "hell-bent on destroying" all autonomous institutions in the country.

Without acknowledging the notices sent to RBI under Section 7 of the RBI Act, the finance ministry in a statement said autonomy was "essential" but its functioning must be guided by public interest and needs of the economy.

"If the RBI Governor Urjit Patel resigns, then it will be definitely called the government's unwanted, unnecessary interference in the independence of the central bank," the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader said.

"If the (RBI) Governor steps down...it will be very bad news. It will send a wrong message to the international business community and it will have a grave impact on the Indian economy as well.

Because never before has Section 7 of the RBI Act been used in our country's history," he told reporters here.

He claimed that in the last four-and-half years all autonomous institutions had been destroyed.

"Now the government is after RBI, and they are responsible for allowing this issue to come to this level," Owaisi asserted.

Had they had a good working relationship with the RBI governor and other governors, things would not have drifted to such an extent, he said.