The petition on change.org was triggered by the recent attacks on Rajan mounted by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy.
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Rajan said the world is growing “extremely slowly”, with the factors differing from one country to other and termed notions of a de-coupling of growth between industrial countries and emerging markets as “illusory”. “His past records and laurels are well known to Indians everywhere, and his worldwide recognition is elaborate enough in public domain”, said another petition filed by Bengaluru-based Rajesh Palaria. The petition said Mr Rajan’s past record and laurels are well known.
It has, however, adhered to key targets like the fiscal deficit number and also made inflation-targeting a key objective for the central bank.
On the need for intervention in the realm of exchange rate to reduce volatility, Rajan said the country’s foreign exchange reserve has gone up to $360 billion, which can also be described as a strong line of defence for Indian economy in the context of adverse global scenario.
Meanwhile, in an apparent criticism of Dr Rajan’s monetary policies, Ms Sitharaman said that high interest rates are impacting cost competitiveness of the industry, especially small and medium enterprises. “I have already said that input cost can not be so high. Therefore, we should focus on small and medium agro-based projects”, Mr Rajan said. “So interest rates do have a bearing on the cost competitiveness of industries”, Ms Sitharaman said in an interview to a news channel.
“I would not like to comment on what other people want to say”, Godrej told PTI when asked about Swamy’s statement.
Calling for a better business environment for start-ups, the RBI governor said while the country has succeeded in doing away with “licence raj” another equally distracting “inspector raj” continues to some extent.
Godrej’s remarks come amidst wide speculation over Rajan’s future, whose current three-year term as RBI chief will come to an end this September.
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Subramanian Swamy had earlier written a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi complaining about the governor and arguing against an extension for him. They have also voiced this.
