RBI vs Center: Amid RBI's autonomy war, PM Narendra Modi met governor Urjit Patel for 'first hand account,' claim sources

Amidst the CBI crisis, the tussle between the RBI and the Center has crafted the headlines and sources have claimed that PM Narendra Modi has met governor Urjit Patel for ‘first hand account’ of the infighting.

The unprecedented face-off between the Reserve Bank of India and the Finance Ministry has led to a civil war in the organization, wherein the deputy governor has issued statements regarding the autonomy of the RBI and its dilution by the Central government.

Amidst the scuffle between the two over the autonomy, the PM Narendra Modi had reportedly met the governor and discussed about the offing and the case pertaining to autonomous institution.

"The Prime Minister wanted to have a first-hand account and explain to him his government's perspective and that his government is answerable to the people," as reported by the NDTV.

Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram had earlier alleged that, “When the Governor refused, the government took the extraordinary, unprecedented step of invoking Section 7 of the RBI Act.”

There have been news that the government is planning to impose Section 7 of the RBI act, which gives power to the government to consult and give instructions to the RBI chief in the name of public interest and thus, the central bank loses its tag of being autonomous. This act has never been used in the history of the RBI.

The feud between the RBI and the center came in public when the deputy governor Viral Acharya issued a statement in which he was backing the governor Urjit Patel and said, that undermining the RBI’s autonomy could be “potentially catastrophic.”

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