When Manmohan Singh defended Urjit Patel from Oppn MPs

For former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the sanctity of economic policymaking and institutional integrity came before partisan politics.

This was evident when he came to the rescue of RBI governor Urjit Patel, even though MPs from the Opposition -including his own party colleagues in a parliamentary panel-were keen to grill the latter over demonetisation.

In January 2017, Patel was deposing before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance chaired by Veerappa Moily where he was posed some tough questions regarding demonetisatiom.


Singh was a member of the committee.

As the members tried to grill Patel, Singh, who had made a forceful speech against demonetisation in the Rajya Sabha, intervened to say that the central bank and the governor's position as an institution should be respected.

Dinesh Trivedi, who was then an MP from the Trinamool Congress, was also a member of the panel. Trivedi said he and several Congress MPs asked Patel if he was aware that demonetisation would be announced. "Then Dr Singh intervened and told Patel, 'You need not answer all questions'," Trivedi told ET.

Later, Trivedi asked Singh why he had intervened. The former PM said that for the sake of the institution's integrity, some things should be left unanswered.