Indians should be concerned: Raghuram Rajan on Patel's resignation

Raghuram Rajan | PTI Raghuram Rajan | PTI

Former Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan said that the resignation of central bank chief Urjit Patel on Monday should be a matter of concern for all Indians and needs to be investigated.

"I think his statement should be respected. We should go into the details on why there was an impasse which forced him to take this ultimate decision," Rajan told ET NOW channel.

Patel stepped down, citing "personal reasons", a statement issued by the RBI said. “I think this is something all Indians should be concerned about because strength of our institution is really important both for growth and sustainable growth in equity and the economy,” said Rajan.

The government and the RBI have been fighting for weeks over the autonomy of the RBI. The government and RBI has been at loggerheads on various issues, including transfer of RBI's excess reserves to the government and easing liquidity to non-bank financial companies.

Speculation of Patel’s exit had picked up a couple of months ago when RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya delivered a hard hitting speech on the need to ensure the independence of the central bank. The speech was delivered with the backing of Patel, suggested the footnotes in Acharya’s speech.