NEW DELHI: Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan is an Indian citizen, the central bank has said in response to a Right to Information (RTI) query.
The governor is an Indian citizen and holds an Indian passport, the RBI said in reply to the RTI query.
The clarification comes three years after questions were raised on Rajan’s citizenship status. It also comes at a time when BJP MP Subrahmanyam Swamy has alleged that Rajan has a US Green Card and is “mentally” not an Indian citizen. “I feel Raghuram Rajan is not appropriate for the country. The country has suffered because of the way he raised interest rates saying that inflation will be curbed. He should be relieved as soon as possible and sent to Chicago,” Swamy had said.
According to earlier reports, when Rajan’s name was cleared by the Centre for the RBI governor’s job in 2013, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi had also raised the issue through a calling attention notice in Parliament, asking how a foreigner could be appointed as the central banker.