No, Raghuram Rajan never made any scathing remarks on Modi; Fact Check

A Twitter post being shared as that of former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has made some critical remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that Modi has set India back by 40 years during his “four-year tenure” among other allegations.

It has been shared on Twitter widely here and here. See the message:

*Raghuram Rajan, former Chairman of Reserve Bank of India, writes:*

Today’s India is a garland of flowers in the hands of a “monkey.”

I am neither a congressman nor a Communist nor a Modi bhakt.

I am only an ordinary citizen who loves my country.

In the last 70 years,… pic.twitter.com/6Uipf5Tmag

— John Samuel 🇮🇳 (@pitchaijohn1961) June 27, 2023

It may be noted that Digiteye India has debunked several claims on social media attributed to Rajan in the past. Hence, sensing inaccuracies in the message, we took it up for fact checking.

FACT CHECK

To begin with, the message has several misgivings at the first sight. First of all, the message claims that Raghuram Rajan was the former chairman of the Reserve Bank of India, which is not true. RBI has only Governor and not chairman. Further, Modi’s term as PM has crossed 9 years and not merely four years as claimed in the message and Rajan, being the RBI chief during Modi’s initial period in 2014 is not expected to make this mistake.

Secondly, Raghuram Rajan, despite making critical observations on Modi government’s economic policies in the past, he never made remarks personally at the prime minister nor did he compare him with anybody to denigrate the office. Hence, the writing in the message clearly gives away that it was attributed to Rajan and was not made by him. In fact, Rajan has often expressed his views in his LinkedIn account and refuted several such false allegations attributed to him in the past.

The last message made by Raghuram Rajan against the Modi government was about his criticism of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing, specifically highlighting concerns regarding mobile manufacturing, here.

There is no other news item or official statement from Rajan on Twitter or LinkedIn on the lines made in the latest criticism about the Modi government. Hence, the viral post is fabricated and being falsely attributed to Raghuram Rajan.

Claim: Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has made scathing remarks on the Modi government’s policies

Conclusion: False, he never made such remarks on any social media as attributed to him.

Rating: Misrepresentation —