SquareShooter

I had to write this as a follow up to the Slander post that I wrote in June. Sunday, September 4th Raghuram Rajan will leave Reserve Bank of India, handing over the reins to Urjit Patel. By now many questions would have been raised on the choice of Patel, markets reacted, and Prime Minister’s detractors taking their usual potshots at the Ambani connection. But, in all this the man who went against Rajan, first mainly on him being not fully Indian has endorsed Patel. Subramaniam Swamy has no problems with the fact that Patel didn’t “officially” become a citizen till 2013 when he had to assume office as deputy governor of RBI. The charge against Rajan was he held on to his green card, that was akin to being a US citizen for Swamy. But, Patel having worked with the government in various capacities since 1998 opted for Indian citizenship only in 2013 is immaterial. Patel was also educated in institutions abroad, from London School of Economics to Oxford and Yale. ...

Why should I be writing any on this when the chapter is over and everyone from top economists to Bollywood stars have expressed their views. Just pouring my thoughts out and nothing else. First, when Raghuram Rajan’s appointment was announced as the Governor of Reserve Bank of India Subramaniam Swamy and his supporters started a campaign saying Rajan was an American citizen and hence should not be allowed to occupy one of the most important posts in the country. If Raghuram Rajan was indeed an American citizen either at the time of appointment or was found so later when the party supported by Swamy came to power, how difficult was it for them to establish that and sack him. Is this country so poor with its record keeping, that a simple fact like Raghuram Rajan’s passport could not be verified. Rajan said he has always held only Indian passport and didn’t take any other citizenship ever. Our MEA cannot verify if this is fact or not in a day? If Rajan was accused of...