Urjit Patel seeks temporary exemption from House panel appearance 

Since Patel had not answered many questions in his first appearance before the panel or in his written submissions, the June 8 meeting is likely to see some tough questions being put to the RBI Governor by the Opposition. On April 20, Singh had insisted that Patel should be called before the panel to tell how much money had come back to banks in deposits after the demonetisation decision and what was the RBI’s preparedness for the digital money push of the government.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who had questioned the panel’s rationale of calling Patel again, said that since the RBI Governor was ready to appear before the panel after June 7, he was sure that panel chairman Moily, who himself had been a minister, will understand the pressing engagements of the RBI Governor. Dubey suggested that the committee should now deliberate more on the “digital economy” as “demonetisation is no longer an issue”. Dubey and some other BJP members had argued that calling the RBI Governor again would give an impression that officers were being “unduly harassed” by the panel.

However, Singh and other Congress members, the BJD’s B Mahtab and Trinamool Congress’ Saugata Roy batted for calling Patel before the panel again. Singh said the discussion was not yet complete and Patel did not tell the panel in his earlier appearance of January 18 how much money had come back to the banks after the demonetisation decision was taken. Mahtab had said the panel needed to be told what was the real purpose of demonetisation and how the process was carried out and what role the RBI had played.