PM Modi compared former RBI Gov Urjit Patel to ‘money-hoarding snake’, reveals ex-bureaucrat in book

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had referred to former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel as a “snake who sits over a hoard of money”, revealed former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg in his upcoming book titled ‘We Also Make Policy’. Garg, in his book set to be released in October by publisher HarperCollins, revealed that PM Modi’s remark came during an economic review meeting in 2018. 

Excerpts from Garg’s book, published by the Indian Express, reveal the tense relationship between the government and the RBI at the time. The Prime Minister saw no solution after listening to Patel and the presentations and discussions with government officials including then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Garg said. Patel had offered some recommendations to the government but nothing to the RBI, besides what they were already doing. 

Garg wrote that at that point the PM lost his cool and took on Patel. “I saw him in such an angry mood for the first time. He compared Urjit Patel to the snake who sits over a hoard of money, for being unreceptive to putting RBI’s accumulated reserves to any use,” Garg wrote. 

PM Modi then urged the governor to convene a meeting of the board and find solutions for the issues in consultation with FM Jaitley and the finance team, he wrote. 

Garg added in the book that the tensions between the government and Urjit Patel began in February 2018 when the former RBI Governor introduced a stringent framework for handling non-performing loans in the banking sector, eventually leading to his resignation over policy disagreements. 

In the meeting with the PM, Patel’s assessment was more alarmist than the prevailing economic situation. Some of the suggestions included scrapping of long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax, massive scaling-up of disinvestment targets, and more. 

Patel had later in March 2018 delivered a speech in Gandhinagar questioning the government’s inability to shed regulatory authority over nationalised banks and leaving RBI with inadequate regulatory authority over public sector banks compared to private sector banks. 

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