Efforts to clean banking system cost Urjit Patel his job: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday claimed that efforts by former RBI chief Urjit Patel to clean the banking system cost him his job.

Gandhi used a news report that quoted Patel saying that the insolvency law caused a rift with the government to buttress his claim.

"'Efforts to clean the banking system cost him his job'. Why? PM didn't want him to go after wilful defaulters," Gandhi said on Twitter while tagging the news report.

The BJP, however, hit back at the former Congress chief. Its IT department in-charge Amit Malviya tweeted a picture of Gandhi's post and said: "Writing sensational one-liners doesn't make you an expert on economics."

"There is little doubt that Rahul Gandhi's advisors are as daft as him if not more...," he said.

The news report quoted Patel as saying that moves to dilute a new bankruptcy law caused disagreements between the Modi government and the central bank. Patel's erstwhile deputy Viral Acharya was also quoted as saying that efforts to clean the banking system cost Patel his job.