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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Trump pauses Project Freedom, claims great progress for final agreement with Iran
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump has suspended “Project Freedom,” to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, claiming progress in negotiations with Iran toward an agreement to end the war.
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said, “Great progress has been made toward a complete and final agreement with representatives of Iran.”
“Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump said.
Project Freedom was launched on Monday to escort ships, stranded due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, out to safety. Trump had announced the operation on Sunday and the US Central Command began implementing it the next day.
However, the Project led to friction in the vicinity of the narrow seaway, a key route for transporting one-fifth of the global oil supplies, with the UAE claiming that its ships were attacked by Iran. The US also claimed to have destroyed several Iranian small boats.
Trump’s statement on Truth Social came hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Operation Epic Fury, launched on February 28, had concluded as its objectives have been achieved.
"Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation. We're not cheering for an additional situation to occur. We would prefer the path of peace. What @POTUS would prefer is a deal... that is, so far, not the route that Iran has chosen," Rubio told a press conference at the White House on Tuesday.
On Project Freedom, Rubio said the goal was to rescue almost 23,000 civilians from 87 different countries who were trapped inside the Persian Gulf and left for dead by the Iranian regime.
"This is not an offensive operation. This is a defensive operation, and what that means is very simple: there’s no shooting unless we're shot at first. We’re not attacking them, but if they're attacking us or they’re attacking a ship, you need to respond to that," Rubio said.
