Chidambaram takes dig at BJP, says UPA never abused RBI Governor

Taking a dig at BJP, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said none from the Congress or UPA "abused" the then RBI Governor D Subbarao though there were differences between the government and the central bank.

"I was a Minister, he was a Governor. We had a good relationship. We may have disagreed. Please remember we did not abuse the Governor. We did not let anyone loose to abuse the Governor and we did not force the Governor to say, I will not accept the second term. We gave him (Subbarao) a second term," he told Karan Thapar on India Today TV.

He was apparently referring to the series of strident attacks by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy on Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan which virtually forced him to declare that he was not keen on a second term.

Rejecting Subbarao's contention in his just-released book that he paid a price for not toeing government line on interest rates, he said the UPA government had accepted one of the two recommendations he made on extending tenure of the Deputy Governors.

Chidambaram said it was not Governor's prerogative to choose the deputy governor or seek an extension.

"If it was Governor prerogative to choose the Deputy Governor, that would have said so. But it is the prerogative of the government to choose the Deputy Governor," he said adding the UPA government did not give a second term to Subir Gokaran as desired by Subbarao.

"But Dr Subbraro forgets that I acceded to his request (and) we gave an extended term to Deputy Governor H R Khan. He does not mention that in his book," he said.

The former finance minister said the UPA government in deciding against giving Gokaran a second term thought fit to bring a new man in the job.

"We brought in Dr Urjit Patel. Has anybody questioned credential of Dr Patel? He was a fine choice. In the case of Mr Khan, we gave him an extension, so you have to mention both in the book," he said.

Chidambaram stood by his previous statement that finance ministry under UPA had endorsed RBI actions on interest rates in eight out of 10 cases.