Better late than never, RBI Governor finally defending bank from Modi: Rahul
New Delhi, Oct 29: Congress president Rahul Gandhi said Monday it is nice to see RBI Governor Urjit Patel "finally defending" the central bank from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and noted that the country will never allow the BJP-RSS combine to "capture" institutions.
He said it was not too late for the RBI governor to stand in defence of the Reserve Bank of India, after reports said there was a rift between Patel And 'Team Modi'.
"Nice that Mr Patel is finally defending the RBI from 'Mr 56'. Better late than never (sic). India will never allow the BJP/ RSS to capture our institutions," Gandhi said on Twitter.
Former finance minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram said there must have been some grave reason why RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya pitched for "effective independence" of the bank and, in the footnote, said he is grateful to Patel for encouraging him to explore the subject.
"So I think the matter is serious enough and it'll be best if the RBI and the government don't talk across each other through lectures, we've had two already," he said.
Chidambaram said it would be better if the time-honoured practice of the finance minister and the governor of the RBI meet in private and discuss issues.
"We have done that in the past and it has worked well, why are people delivering lectures across each other I don't know," he said when asked about the controversy.
As per reports, the long-simmering discord between the central bank and the government is turning into a very public brawl. Acharya in a hard-hitting speech Friday on central bank's independence startled his audience by invoking Argentina of 2010.
Acharya had said governments that do not respect central bank's independence would sooner or later incur the "wrath of financial markets, ignite economic fire and come to rue the day they undermined an important regulatory institution".
Amid instances of apparent differences between the government and the RBI, Acharya emphasised that undermining a central bank's independence is akin to committing a "self goal" for any government.
Delivering the A D Shroff Memorial Lecture, he said, "What matters is the effective independence with which these powers (vested in the Acts governing the RBI or any central bank) can be exercised in practice."
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Ahmedabad plane crash: Six months on, college hostel lies in ruins, sans bustle of students
Ahmedabad (PTI): Six months after the AI-171 plane crash, the B J Medical College hostel complex in Ahmedabad stands as a haunting reminder, with its charred walls and burnt trees replacing the once lively chatter of students with an eerie stillness.
Scattered across the crash site are grim remnants of daily life - burnt cars and motorcycles, twisted beds and furniture, charred books, clothes and personal belongings.
The Atulyam-4 hostel building and the adjoining canteen complex stand abandoned, with entry strictly prohibited.
For residents near the site, memories of the incident still linger, casting a lasting shadow on their lives, with some of them saying they are still afraid to look up at the sky when an aircraft passes overhead.
On June 12, Air India flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London, crashed moments after take-off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, killing 260 persons.
The aircraft slammed into the BJ Medical College hostel complex in Meghaninagar, turning a lively student neighbourhood into a landscape of ruin and grief.
"The area now lies very silent, only a few birds chirp here," Sanjaybhai, a security guard deployed at the premises by authorities to prevent trespassing, told PTI.
Mahendrasingh Jadeja, a general store owner whose shop is just 50 metres from the point where the aircraft struck, described it as an unimaginable calamity. "In all my years, I have never seen anything like this."
Pointing to a tree behind his shop, the 60-year-old said the aircraft first struck there before crashing into the hostel building.
"It was a scorching summer afternoon. Not many people were outside. When I heard a loud crashing sound, I ran out of my shop. We were all terrified," he recalled.
"Even today, we instinctively look up whenever a plane passes overhead," he added.
Another local, Manubhai Rajput, who lives barely 200 metres from the site, said he witnessed the horror unfold on June 12.
"The plane was flying unusually low. Before I could understand what was happening, there was thick black smoke and a deafening crash," he said.
For over three decades, Rajput and his neighbours lived close to the airport without giving much thought to the aircraft overhead.
"We never looked up at the sky. But that day is etched in my mind. The plane hit a tree first, and then there was a loud sound," he said.
Rajput recalled how hundreds of locals rushed to the site even before police, fire services or the Army arrived.
Tinaben, another resident of Meghaninagar, said she never imagined something like this could happen in Ahmedabad.
"Despite being close to the airport, this area always felt safe," she said.
As an aircraft roared overhead during the conversation, Tinaben paused, looked up nervously and said, "It's still scary."
A senior official of Civil Hospital Ahmedabad, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the state government has yet to decide what to do with the damaged site.
Currently, investigations are going on and the site is strictly prohibited for people, he added.
