Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday hit out at former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan over his reported statement on mobile manufacturing in India, calling him a “politician who is doing shadow-boxing on someone else's behalf”, news agency PTI reported.
“India is not manufacturing mobile phones under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme but is only assembling them,” Rajan recently said.
Also read: Ex-RBI governor Raghuram Rajan says banking system headed for more trouble
Retorting to the former RBI governor's statement, Vaishnaw said, “Every country starts manufacturing electronics in a phased manner.”
He also assured that India will be achieving more than 30 per cent value addition in electronics manufacturing in the next two years and three companies would soon manufacture important mobile phone components to the world.
“When good economists become politicians, they lose their economic sense. Raghuram Rajan has become a politician. Now, he should come out in the open, fight elections, conduct elections, and participate in political activities. Doing shadowboxing is not something that is good. He is trying to do shadow-boxing on behalf of somebody else,” PTI quoted Vaishnaw saying.
Calling Rajan a “well-accomplished economist”, Vaishnaw said, “This kind of shadow-boxing Raghuram Rajan is doing is not a fair thing. He is a very well-accomplished economist. I request him to stay as an economist or turn into a politician."
Also read: ‘Biased and…’: SBI dismisses Raghuram Rajan's 'Hindu rate of growth' prediction
BJP vs Raghuram Rajan over Bharat Jodo Yatra
{{/usCountry}}Calling Rajan a “well-accomplished economist”, Vaishnaw said, “This kind of shadow-boxing Raghuram Rajan is doing is not a fair thing. He is a very well-accomplished economist. I request him to stay as an economist or turn into a politician."
Also read: ‘Biased and…’: SBI dismisses Raghuram Rajan's 'Hindu rate of growth' prediction
BJP vs Raghuram Rajan over Bharat Jodo Yatra
{{/usCountry}}Notably, the ex-RBI governor had joined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi briefly in Rajasthan during the nationwide Bharat Jodo Yatra that stretched from Kanyakumari to Kashmir last year. In between the country-wide march, Gandhi had also interviewed the senior economist.
However, the saffron party did not take Rajan's move well.
The party slammed the former RBI governor saying his “commentary on India's economy should be discarded with disdain as it is coloured and opportunistic.”
(With inputs from PTI)