What Raghuram Rajan told Rahul Gandhi: ‘Internal harmony must for external security’

On Wednesday, one of the recipients of that letter, former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan, joined the yatra as it began from Bhadoti area of Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan and reached Badshahpura for a morning break.

The yatra, which started from Kanyakumari on September 7, will complete 100 days on Friday.

“Freedom is the essence of democracy and harmony is the foundation of a prosperous economy,” Rahul tweeted, posting a picture of him walking with a smiling Rajan.

Rahul Gandhi and Raghuram Rajan march during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Rajasthan, December 14, 2022.

Hours later, he put out a video clip of their interaction, in which Rajan is heard telling Rahul that his yatra for “communal harmony and unity is something that the country needs, regardless of what political party you are in”.

“You have to have internal harmony to have external security. Many people say we can fight internally… we will suppress this minority, suppress that, and we will be strong outside. It is not possible,” Rajan says in the video clip.

“Democracy is also our strength. Many countries are looking up to India. What is India saying…what example India is setting. So we will have to think about what we are doing and in which way we are going,” he says.

The two engaged in a free-wheeling discussion about the economy, growing income inequality, challenges of unemployment, difficulties faced by small and medium businesses, inconsistencies in export-import policies and the growth potential of some sectors.

Economically, next year is going to be more difficult than the current year, according to Rajan. “Because growth is going to slow in the world… people are raising interest rates… That brings down growth. India is also going to be hit. Indian interest rates have also gone up but Indian exports have been slowing quite a bit. And India’s inflation problem is more a commodity inflation problem… vegetable inflation… and that is also going to be negative for growth. So I think that we would be lucky if we do 5% next year,” he says.

Raghuram Rajan joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra as it began from Bhadoti area of Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan and reached Badshahpura for a morning break. (PTI Photo)

“The problem with the growth numbers is that you have to understand what you are measuring with respect to. If there was a terrible quarter last year and you are measuring with respect to that, you look very good. Ideally, what you do is look beyond the pandemic… And if we look at 2022 vis-a-vis 2019, it is about 2 per cent a year. That is too low for us,” he says.

Rajan says that while the pandemic was part of the problem, India was slowing down before that. “We had gone from 9 per cent to 5 per cent. We haven’t really generated reforms which will generate growth,” he says, adding that the lower middle class was hit hard by the pandemic with job losses, growing unemployment and an increase in interest rates.

On Rahul’s question about the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few industrialists, he says: “We cannot be against capitalism but we have to fight for competition. We should be against (creation of) monopoly.”

Rajan, who exited the RBI in September 2016, becoming the second RBI Governor in three decades to have not completed a five-year term, was interviewed by Rahul in April 2020, during the Covid lockdown as well.

In his letter to about 100 prominent personalities, including stand-up comic Kunal Kamra and vocalist T M Krishna, inviting them to join his yatra, Rahul said: “You can see that our beloved country has changed beyond recognition. Those who cherish India as a country of immense diversity — of religions, cultures, languages, food and music — can see the attempt to violently flatten its reality. Today, the state, the ruling party, and the public institutions that are meant to check and balance them, have merged into a single entity. I need not explain how dangerous this is.”

The letter, seen by The Indian Express, said: “(The) mainstream media has become an instrument that serves only the interest and destructive ideology of those in power. This artificial noise barrier has ensured that the voices of dissent, reason, tolerance and love are silenced. It is to overcome this barrier that we are walking from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. We are walking to listen to the voices of the people”.

Q. Why is the BJP outraged by Mr. Rahul Gandhi having a conversation with Dr. Raghuram Rajan?

A. Because PM Modi does not meet economists and economists have no access to PM Modi

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) December 14, 2022

Saying that thousands of people have “opened their homes and hearts to us”, Rahul wrote: “You, through all that you have done, are a valuable part of this conversation and I would very much like to listen to you and share our perspectives. It doesn’t matter whether we agree or disagree. It’s important that we talk and listen in freedom.”

Sources in the Congress said several prominent personalities have accepted the invitation and may join the yatra in the coming days as it traverses through the north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Punjab before reaching Srinagar around Republic Day.

Meanwhile, taking a swipe at Rajan, BJP leader Amit Malviya tweeted: “Raghuram Rajan, former RBI Governor, a Congress appointee, joining Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is not a surprise. He fancies himself as the next Manmohan Singh. Just that his commentary on India’s economy should be discarded with disdain. It is coloured and opportunistic.”

Hitting back, Congress leader P Chidambaram tweeted: “Q. Why is the BJP outraged by Mr Rahul Gandhi having a conversation with Dr Raghuram Rajan? A. Because PM Modi does not meet economists and economists have no access to PM Modi.”