"Difference of opinion is different from disharmony"

Earlier this year, when Y.V. Reddy, former bureaucrat and governor of RBI, announced that he was penning down a memoir, there was widespread anticipation.

- E. Kumar Sharma

Understandable, given that during his tenure in the ministry of finance, RBI and the Finance Commission, he oversaw many rules being rewritten. Advice & Dissent: My Life in Public Service, while earnest, has been hailed as a rather reticent account of Reddy’s prolific career. At the book launch, on a rainy July evening in Hyderabad, when D. Subbarao, the former governor of RBI who took over from Reddy, sought Reddy’s reaction on this, he said, “I don’t think I was restrained in taking decisions, but putting it in public domain, I agree, I have been restrained.”

Reddy spoke to Business Today’s E. Kumar Sharma on the book that he wrote over the past two and a half years. Excerpts:

People have said that you have missed a chance to reveal more stories or shall we say pack in more punches…

Everyone has an individual style of expression. Some people are more vocal, some prefer to be more polite. It is just that really.

How challenging was agreement and decision-making being in the presence of so many economists – the likes of Manmohan Singh, C. Rangarajan?