18 angry men and two staid questions

With apologies to Oscar Wilde, losing one RBI governor may be regarded as a misfortune; losing two would have looked like carelessness

“It seldom pays to be rude”. But more importantly, noted Norman Douglas, a British diplomat and author of Siren Land, “It never pays to be only half-rude”. India’s central government might have committed this grievous error earlier this week. 

For a few weeks now, the Union government has been threatening to overrule India’s central bank. It initiated discussions under the dreaded Section 7 of the Reserve Bank of India Act; this provision has never been used, and it allows the government to make the RBI management (that is, the RBI governor and his team of deputy governors) to fall in line.