Patel announces shock exit as RBI chief before term

Congress says institution ‘denigrated’ by govt; Raghuram Rajan says ‘Indians should be concerned’

MUMBAI/NEWDELHI: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel resigned from the position citing personal reasons with immediate effect on Monday, nearly 10 months before the completion of his term in September next year.

The announcement that could potentially roil currency and equity markets on Tuesday triggered a political war of words, with former prime minister Manmohan Singh saying he hoped that Patel’s sudden resignation was not a “harbinger of the [Narendra] Modi government’s attempts to destroy” the institutional foundations of India’s $3 trillion economy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Patel left behind a great legacy and would be missed “immensely”. “Dr Urjit Patel is an economist of a very high calibre with a deep and insightful understanding of macro-economic issues. He steered the banking system from chaos to order and ensured discipline. Under his leadership, the RBI brought financial stability,” Modi tweeted.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley was similarly effusive in his praise for Patel’s leadership of the central bank. “The Government acknowledges with deep sense of appreciation the services rendered by Dr. Urjit Patel to this country both in his capacity as the Governor and the Deputy Governor of The RBI. It was a pleasure for me to deal with him and benefit from his scholarship,” Jaitley wrote on Twitter.