Raghuram Rajan was not averse to second term at RBI

Mumbai: RBI governor Raghuram Rajan expressed satisfaction that he has completed 95 per cent of what he wanted to do in a three-year-horizon. “I am not saying that that I have done everything I wanted to do. Bank clean-ups need waiting and watching and it would have been useful to see the Monetary policy committee which had a few meetings. It does not mean I was hell bent on a second term. I am perfectly happy to go,” he told CNBC’s Lata Venkatesh in an interview on Wednesday.

Having spent four years in India, three as RBI governor Mr Rajan said “I do not want to be a career bureaucrat or a technocrat. I am fundamentally an academic, this (RBI) is my side job. It is more about where I could implement ideas, reform programmes—is was absolutely a job I wanted to have. We worked together and I had a fantastic team.”

Mr Rajan who’s term ends on September 4 had dropped a bombshell in June announcing that he would not seek a second term. This decision had come after his ‘dialogue with the government did not reach a place where I could have stayed on.”

BJP MP Subramaniam Swamy had accused MR Rajan of not being “mentally fully Indian” and not working for the good of India. He was supported by Union ministers like Nirmala Sitharaman.

Mr  Rajan termed political attacks on him as “abominable”-imputing motives,  even as he welcomed genuine criticism of his monetary policies and added his stay at university made him  “pretty thick skinned.”   He said “it is important to convince people of what you are doing and why.”

The country needs institutional reform to build a platform for strong and sustainable growth, but one has to be cautious against inflationary spiral in trying to push  domestic demand led growth, he said.

“I keep saying, it is a no brainer to generate growth  when the rest of the world is growing strong; when it is  export led growth, you don’t need institutional change,” he  said. Asked whether he was too outspoken , Mr Rajan said he did not worry about his future career prospects. “Wherever we had to say ‘no’, I have never worried about  reappointment, or about whether I will have a future career in  the government or anywhere else. I have said ‘no’ when I think  it is in the best interest of the country,” he said.

Asked whether it was the crony capitalists who were behind his ouster, Mr Rajan dismissed this saying “I don't think you should attribute this to some hidden hand. I feel, I have done what was needed to be done, if they had such power they would have stopped me (from doing) what was needed.”