Mumbai: Outgoing RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday indicated he has no regrets about not getting a second term, saying he was fundamentally an academic and that this was his "side job".
In an exclusive interview to CNBC TV18 he said, "I want to implement ideas and reforms. This was a job I wanted to have, and I worked with a fantastic team."
He also said he came back to India from the US prepared for a three-year stint as Reserve Bank of India governor and that everything he wanted to do was structured for that.
When pointed out that he said in his letter to his colleagues that he would have loved to stay on, Rajan said: “The dialogue with the Government did not reach a stage where I could stay on. Some things remain unfinished. About 90-95% of what I wanted to be done was achieved and the job of an RBI Governor is never done."
Answering a question on the series of barbs at him, Rajan said he tried to put aside the baseless attacks and tried to address the legitimate criticism of his policies.
He said, “It is important to convince the public of reasons behind policy moves and we need institutional reforms which can build a platform for strong and sustainable growth. We need to be very careful when impelling domestic demand."
Asked if he would do it differently if he were to do it all over again, Rajan said, “As an entity, the RBI is supposed to be conservative, long-term in vision with focus on stability. I have been very open to innovation on reform process and have been very conservative in my approach to stability."
Defending the tough decisions taken by him as RBI Governor he said that he was never worried about a second term. He said, “Whenever we've had to say 'no', I was never worried about re-appointment or future prospects. In hindsight, all mistakes have been because we were too pliant."
Asked about that popular analysis that he had to go because of his drive against "crony capitalists", Rajan said it was was pointless to attribute anything to a "hidden hand".
"Whatever I had to do, I had absolute freedom in doing it," he said.
Rajan added that he had a great working relationship with the previous UPA government as well as the present Modi administration.
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