Dissent Is Not Defiance

Dissent Is Not Defiance

- Nachiket Kelkar

In his long career, Yaga Venugopal Reddy battled the worst of the crises and enjoyed the best of the good times. He was in the finance ministry when India faced the foreign exchange crisis in the early 1990's. He was the governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2003 to 2008 when the economy grew in leaps and bounds. Reddy’s new book, Advice and Dissent: My Life in Public Service, which will be released on July 12, offers an insight into not just his career, but also his childhood and family. In an interview with THE WEEK, he talks about autonomy of Central banks, farm loan waivers and dealing with non-performing assets. Excerpts:

What was the thought behind the title ‘Advice & Dissent’?

It was an accident. The publishers and I had discussed many options; we couldn’t agree. The most preferred title from the publishers point of view was ‘Good as Gold’. So, he wanted to say the gold policy and whatever it is. I was very keen about ‘Destiny and Dharma’. I said, all of my life I went where my destiny took me and I did my Dharma. But we couldn’t agree and we went round and round. Somewhere, this title was suggested and was agreeable. Not the first option, not even the second option, but acceptable to the publisher and me.

Talking of dissent, there is an instance when you even offered to resign over the issue of allowing foreign banks to acquire local banks. How did you finally get it your way?