Modi govt destroying autonomy of RBI: Congress

The Congress on Tuesday accused the Modi government of trying to destroy the autonomous nature of the RBI and counselled Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to engage in dialogue with the central bank.

“I am surprised by the sharp attack of the finance minister on the RBI and its performance. The central bank is independent and autonomous,” senior Congress leader Anand Sharma told reporters here.

His remarks came soon after Jaitley held the central bank responsible for the mountain of bad loans, saying the RBI looked the other way when banks lent indiscriminately during 2008-14.

“I want to make one thing very clear today to the finance minister since he has specifically commented from the year 2008, the very eminent Governors of the Reserve Bank were far more competent than Arun Jaitley or Narendra Modi,” Sharma said.

He also hit out at the Modi government for claiming that the Indian economy was the fastest growing in the world.

“Both the prime minister and his finance minister have proved to be not only inefficient but thoroughly incompetent when it comes to managing of the Indian economy, which has been nose-diving,” the former commerce minister said.

“There has been a flight of capital which has forced the situation to ensure that we borrow some extra money,” Sharma said.

The Congress leader counselled the Modi government to desist from destroying autonomous institutions and engage in dialogue and consultations rather than seeking to justify what is patently wrong and unjustified.