Focus on corruption sign of maturity, says Raghuram Rajan

PUNE: Terming the focus on corruption in the ongoing election campaign as "a sign of maturity", Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan today advocated changing laws if they "do not make sense".

"The run-up to the elections is all about discussions about integrity. I think this is a sign of a maturing economy," he said, addressing the 10th convocation of the National Institute Bank Management (NIBM) here.

Graft is a major campaign theme in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which was born out of an anti-corruption movement, is aggressively taking up the issue and targeting the BJP, the Congress and top corporates.

Rajan, who left a celebrated academic career in the US to join the economic policymaking, told the NIBM students that often issues at hand fall in the grey area which do not have a ready-made black and white solution.

The choices which one can make are either be to extremely rigid or what is called as bureaucratic, Rajan said.

Another way to deal with this is by being flexible, where core values like integrity, compassion and duty are protected fiercely, the Governor said, adding each one of us need to "figure out what our core is".

Rajan said we should be ready to amend the existing laws if we are convinced about the need for change.

"There are cases where the law is an ass, the rules don't make sense ... If the rules are there and the rules do not make sense, see how you can change the rules. If the law does not make sense, see how you can change the law," he said, but clarified he was not asking people to break any law.

"In the real world, the choices are rarely black and white. Often the choices have shades of grey. So, how will you know when to bend and when to stand firm?"

He told the gathering that once someone is convinced about something, it is his/her duty to accomplish the goal and this is "best way to influence the world".