Remove Rajan as RBI governor, Swamy urges Modi

New Delhi, May 17  BJP's newly nominated Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remove RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, saying "he is mentally not fully Indian".

In a two-page letter to Modi on Monday, Swami said Rajan, a former International Monetary Fund chief economist, should be removed as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) chief with immediate effect.

"The reason why I recommend this is that I am shocked by the wilful and apparently deliberate attempt by Rajan to wreck the Indian economy," he wrote in the letter.

Non-Productive Assets of public sector banks have doubled to Rs.3.5 lakh crore in two years, Swamy said.

"These actions of Rajan lead me to believe that he is acting more as a disrupter of the Indian economy than the person who wants the Indian economy to improve."

"Moreover, he is in this country on a Green Card provided by the US government and is, therefore, mentally not fully Indian. Otherwise, why would he renew his Green Card as RBI governor by making the mandatory annual visit to the US to keep the Green Card current," Swamy said.

"I cannot see why someone appointed by the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government, who is apparently working against Indian economic interests, should be kept in this post when we have so many nationalist minded experts available in this country for the RBI governorship," he added.

Rajan was appointed the RBI governor by the previous UPA government in September 2013 for a three-year term, which can be extended.

On May 12 also, Swamy had blamed Rajan for rising inflation and increasing unemployment in the country, and called for his immediate removal.