PTI, NEW DELHI: Ahead of RBI Board meeting, Congress leader P Chidambaram Sunday alleged that the central government was determined to “capture” the bank to gain control over its Rs 9 lakh crore reserves.
In a series of tweets, the former finance minister also claimed that the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was heading towards a “confrontation” in the Monday’s board meeting of the bank.
“Government is determined to ‘capture’ RBI in order to gain control over the reserves. The other so-called disagreements are only a smokescreen (sic),” he said on microblogging site Twitter.
Chidambaram said, “Nowhere in the world is the central bank a board-managed company. To suggest that private business persons will direct the governor is a preposterous idea.”
“November 19 will be a day of reckoning for central bank independence and the Indian economy,” he tweeted.
The RBI has a massive Rs 9.59 lakh crore reserves and the government, if reports are to be believed, wants the central bank to part with a third of that fund — an issue which along with easing of norms for weak banks and raising liquidity has brought the two at loggerheads in the recent weeks.
