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Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi in Rajasthan on Wednesday as many celebrities have joined the 3,500-km long Yatra in the course of last 98 days. But Rajan was singled out first time when BJP’s IT Cell chief Amit Malviya said the former RBI governor “fancies” himself as the next Manmohan Singh.
Raghuram Rajan was the 23rd Governor of the RBI and served his term between 2013 and 2016. He joined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the Yatra on Wednesday, December 14. He was shown having a discussion with Rahul Gandhi while marching as the Congress’ yatra resumed from Bhadoti of Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan this morning.
Soon after Congress tweeted about his participation stating, “BharatJodoYatra Shri Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of RBI, shaking steps with @RahulGandhi ji… The increasing number of people standing up to unite the country against hatred shows that we will be successful,” the debate on social media kicked off as he was known for his opposition to Demonetisation and other economic policies of the country.
#BharatJodoYatra में @RahulGandhi जी के साथ कदम मिलाते RBI के पूर्व गवर्नर श्री रघुराम राजन…
नफ़रत के खिलाफ देश जोड़ने के लिए खड़े होने वालों की बढ़ती संख्या बताती है कि- हम होंगे कामयाब। pic.twitter.com/MFV6izCpcw
— Congress (@INCIndia) December 14, 2022
Otherwise, several personalities ranging from joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra from activist Medha Patkar to actor Swara Bhaskar but did not evoke reaction the way Rajan’s participation did.
“Just that his commentary on India’s economy should be discarded with disdain. It is coloured and opportunistic,” Malviya tweeted. He was soon joined by BJP national general secretary CT Ravi who said Raghuram Rajan joined Rahul Gandhi’s yatra to “repay his debt” to the “dynasty” that had made him the RBI governor. “Raghu Ram Rajan was glorified as a great economist by the Liberals. But he turns out to be just another jewel in the court of the Fake Gandhis,” CT Ravi tweeted.
Rajan, with Lionel Barber (left) and Lloyd Blankfein (right), at the FT and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award ceremony in 2010.
As an internationally renowned economist, Rajan was averse to the risks of both unnecessary government intervention as well as unregulated financial markets. He advocated more freedom for financial markets in the economy. In his book, Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists: Unleashing the Power of Financial Markets to Create Wealth and Spread Opportunity, he argued that deregulated financial markets facilitate access of the poor to finance and he was known for making the first move as RBI Governor who provided microfinance institutions become minibanks in the country for a greater financial inclusion.
He hols the view that “healthy and competitive financial markets are an extraordinarily effective tool in spreading opportunity and fighting poverty. ”
Otherwie, the yatra will enter its 100th day on December 16 and move to Haryana next. The yatra started from Kanniyakumari on September 7 and has so far covered Tamil Nadu, Kerala, AP, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. It will conclude in Jammu and Kashmir in early February 2023.
