'He Was Asking it for Months, Even Gave it in Writing': PM Modi Reveals on Urjit Patel Resignation

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday made it clear that there was no political pressure on former RBI governor Urjit Patel to resign.

Claiming that he was revealing the reasons for the first time, the PM said Urjt had been wanting to resign for months due to personal reasons.

"He himself requested (to resign) on personal reasons. I am revealing for the first time, he was telling me about it for past 6-7 months before his resignation. He gave it even in writing. No question of political pressure. He did a good job as RBI Governor," PM Modi told news agency News18.

On December 10, Patel, citing personal reasons, resigned amid an unprecedented rift with the Centre over matters related to the central bank's independence.

Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said "all Indians should be concerned about governor Patel's resignation", while West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said: “From CBI to RBI, institutions have become total disasters".

The RBI’s approach of liquidity management had come under severe criticism from the government in the recent past.

RSS ideologue and RBI board member S Gurumurthy believed that if the right to print currency was entrusted to the government and not the central bank, the ongoing liquidity issues could have been handled better.