'Can't spoil the fun press is having', Rajan maintains suspense on second term

NEW DELHI: Amid speculations over his second term in office, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan today said that he would not like to spoil the fun which presently the press is having with all speculations. The RBI Governor, who was speaking at the third bi-monthly monetary policy review meet, refused to answer any poser on whether he intends to stay on for a second term and whether the government has communicated its decision in this regard. "It would be cruel of me to spoil the fun the press is having with my appointment," Rajan said jocularly. "The government will take a decision at the right time. I would not like to comment on anything more than what the Prime Minister and the FM have said," he added. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy had last month triggered speculation by asking the Centre to deny Rajan a second term, saying his hawkish policies have ruined the Indian economy. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he had suggested the RBI Governor's removal. Swamy had in his letter accused Rajan of 'harming the nation's economy' and claimed that the latter was acting more as a disrupter of the Indian economy than the person, who wants the Indian economy to improve. Swamy had then said Rajan is in India on a Green Card and is, therefore, 'mentally not fully Indian.'