Shaktikanta Das is yes man and it’s dangerous: Shiv Sena

For quite some time, Shiv Sena has kept the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Narendra Modi on tenterhooks. In another assault on Saturday, Shiv Sena expressed its concern over the appointment of Shaktikanta Das as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor and called it ‘dangerous’ having potential to unleash ‘financial terror’.

“The (BJP) government does not like people who speak the truth, but wants only those who ‘nod their head in agreement’. If this is the intention behind Das’ appointment, it signals the beginning of a ‘financial terror’ regime,” Sena cautioned.

Sena also went ahead to question the credentials of Das, who has no ‘known’ knowledge of economics and has a specialisation in history. Sena said that the earlier two RBI Governors — Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel — were renowned economists.

“He is known to applaud all good and bad policies of the Narendra Modi government. In fact, he had blindly supported the devastating demonetisation drive (November 2016), and remained unaffected by the peoples’ miseries then. When doubts were raised on the new pink-coloured Rs 2,000 currency notes, he made a laughable statement that those notes which bleed are genuine,” the Sena said in a scathing editorial for the party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ and ‘Dopahar ka Saamana’.

“Rajan had strongly opposed the demonetisation move and quit. Patel sacrificed his post to protect the RBI’s independence and even prevented the government from raiding its reserves. The current economic chaos witnessed in the country is directly because of flawed policies like note ban and GST implementation, resulting in high inflation and falling Rupee value,” said the editorial in Saamana.

It also pointed out that the governor’s post of the country’s central bank is “akin to sitting on a throne of nails and wearing a crown of thorns” and it’s the duty of the governor to “safeguard the independence” of RBI apart from convincing global investors.

“Das enjoys good relations with politicians, but his appointment as RBI head should not lead to any manipulation of the economy and end up as a ‘joke’… Here, he faces crucial questions like inflation and fiscal management. As the RBI Governor, will he be able to rein in the political elements who created the problems in the first place?” Saamana editorial questioned further.

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