It may improve investors' sentiment but the parliament's decision to vote in favour of allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail may have cost the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) governor D Subbarao his date with West Bengal's flamboyant Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Subbarao, who is in Kolkata for the central bank's board meeting tomorrow, was scheduled to pay a courtesy visit to the chief minister. It has been a custom to meet the chief minister whenever a RBI governor visits a state.
The calendar of top RBI executives lists one of Subbarao's today's engagements as "meeting with chief minister of West Bengal" at 5:30 PM in Writers' Building.
The meeting was cancelled without the state government or RBI offering an explanation.
While none of the officials were willing to comment on-record, on condition of anonymity they gave different accounts on why the chief minister decided to scrap the meeting.
Also Read
The most popular reason (three people confirmed it): Banerjee was watching the parliamentary proceedings on FDI in retail that was being telecasted live at the time of her scheduled meeting with RBI governor. Banerjee was certainly not pleased with the outcome as she has been resisting the move to allow foreign investors investing in the multi-brand retail sector.
Another reason was the chief minister was pressed for time as there was a state cabinet meeting. The cabinet meeting started at 6 PM and according to sources she presided over it for about 15 minutes.
A couple of state government officials including a minister said RBI did not seek any appointment with the chief minister today.
Subbarao had met Banerjee during his visit to Kolkata last December.
After the meeting he had said that it was "difficult" for RBI to treat West Bengal as an exception and suggested the government must increase taxes and attract investments to improve its finances.
Banerjee has been writing to the centre for restructuring the state's debt and a few pointed out that the she was not satisfied with the comments made by RBI governor last year.
It was not immediately known if this year's meeting will be rescheduled tomorrow. Subbarao is slated to leave Kolkata tomorrow after attending RBI's board meeting and a state level bankers' committee (SLBC) meeting.
